Int´l Mother Language Day observed in Helsinki

The International Mother Language Day was observed in Finland as elsewhere in the globe on February 21.

The theme of the 2022 International Mother Language Day is “using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities” raises the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all.

Bangladeshi community in Helsinki in cooperation with Kontula Art School marked the day through placing floral wreaths at makeshift Martyrs' Monument where people from different countries took part, said a press release.

They paid tributes to the Martyrs of Bangladesh (Then East Pakistan), who sacrificed their lives to establish Bangla as the state language through waging greater movement against the Pakistani rulers on 21 February 1952.

Participants at the programme expressed their gratitude to the locals and foreigners for their presence on the occasion and sought all-out cooperation to set up a parament Martyrs' Monument in Helsinki.

Kontula Art School organised a drawing competition for the kids in the afternoon marking the day.

The UNESCO selected February 21 to celebrate the International Mother Language Day to pay respect to the Language movement of Bangladesh in 1952.

Number of Bangladeshi people were killed by the then Pakistani government to establish the right of Bengali language as state language of the country. Pakistan wanted to impose Urdu as the state language of Bangladesh (Then East Pakistan) instead of Bengali, which was strongly protested by Bangladeshi people. Such incident of sacrificing lives to establish rights of language is very rare in the world, which encouraged the UNESCO to celebrate the day on the language day of Bangladesh.

International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999. The UN General Assembly welcomed the proclamation of the day in its resolution of 2002.