International Mother Language Day: Why do you need to study in more than one language?

- Story by Arnab Mitra The International Mother Language Day is celebrating all over the world on February 21, 2017. As per UNESCO, here are the befits of multilingual education: Multilingual education facilitates access to education while promoting equity for populations speaking minority and/or indigenous languages, especially girls and women It emphasises the quality of teaching and learning with a focus on understanding and creativity It reinforces the cognitive aspect of learning by ensuring the direct application of learning outcomes to the learner's life through the mother tongue It enhances dialogue and interaction between learner and teacher by allowing genuine communication from the beginning It facilitates participation and action in society and gives access to new knowledge and cultural expressions, thus ensuring a harmonious interaction between the global and the local". History of International Mother Language Day The date pays tribute to the students in Bangladesh who gave their life on this day in 1952 for the recognition of their language 'Bangla' as one of the two national languages The police gunned down four students of Dhaka University Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar, Sofiur Rahman, Abdus Salam, when they marched towards the East Bengal Legislative Assembly breaking the curfew The day is celebrated all over the world, while in Bangladesh, it is celebrated as Shaheed Day commemorating the sacrifice of the martyrs for the language of Bengali On February 29, 1956, Bengali was recognised as the second official language of Pakistan under article 214 of the constitution which states "The state language of Pakistan shall be Urdu and Bengali." So every year, 21st February has been observed as the International Mother Language Day with profound respect for the language martyr.