Education in the Mother Tongue: A Right for Every Person in a Multilingual Country
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June 25, 2024
In Iran, every school year, the topic of mother tongue education becomes a heated debate. Education experts, teachers, officials, non-Persian-speaking students, and university students take this issue seriously. Educational planning and school selection happen at the beginning of the school year, and at the end of the year, results are reviewed, highlighting strengths and weaknesses.
Challenges of Non-Mother Tongue Education
There are many viewpoints on why mother-tongue education is not implemented and the resulting educational, cultural, and social problems. Local education officials in various parts of Iran emphasize that the lack of mother-tongue education confuses non-Persian children at the start of their schooling, leads to academic decline, creates a feeling of being second-class citizens, and even results in school dropouts. Numerous reports indicate that this factor annually causes many non-Persian children to fall behind and fail to progress.
Psychological and Identity Impacts
Education experts and child psychologists believe that not teaching in the mother tongue can disrupt identity formation and hinder talent development at various stages of life, especially during childhood, which is crucial for education.
Experts consider language the primary tool for communication, with the mother tongue being the first language a child naturally learns. UNESCO, the United Nations Specialized Agency for Education, science, and Culture, views the mother tongue as a critical tool for improving learning and socio-emotional development. Child psychologists argue that learning and mastering the mother tongue builds a child's social and cultural identity and helps them better understand educational materials. A strong foundation in the mother tongue also makes learning other languages easier.
Importance of Bilingualism
Research shows that learning a second language at a young age positively impacts children's development and success. If a child is taught in a language they need help understanding, they struggle to grasp educational content and resort to rote memorization. This limits the child's knowledge of their environment, disrupts vital verbal communication skills, hinders academic growth, and leads to future unequal educational and job opportunities.
School Dropout Rates
Dropout rates are higher in regions where the mother tongue is not Persian. On January 18, 2023, the Jamarans News website, citing a report from the Office of Educational and Cultural Studies of the Parliamentary Research Center, announced that five provinces—Sistan and Baluchestan, Razavi Khorasan, Tehran, Khuzestan, and West Azerbaijan—have the highest number of school dropouts. These statistics highlight the role of language in school dropouts.
Social and Psychological Impacts
The lack of mother tongue education leads to mistrust, a superiority complex among Persian speakers, an inferiority complex among non-Persians, psychological problems, and a lack of self-confidence in ethnic communities. When a particular language monopolizes education and cultural facilities, a sense of superiority among the speakers of that language becomes prevalent, potentially leading to social tensions. The taboo surrounding the discussion of mother tongue education in Iran over the past century has exacerbated these issues.
Recommendations
For over two decades, UNESCO has established "International Mother Language Day" to raise awareness about various languages and the resulting cultural diversity. In support of this decision, the United Nations General Assembly has called on its member states to recognize and value the linguistic diversity of their ethnic minorities.
Given that Iran is a multilingual country and that education in the mother tongue is a fundamental right for every person, the government must take the lead and guide the educational system toward multilingual education and mother tongue instruction. This can solve many problems non-Persian residents face and foster mutual understanding and respect. Our recommendations include:
- Development of Bilingual Teachers: Hiring and training bilingual teachers who can teach in two languages.
- Multilingual Curricula: Designing and implementing curricula that include subjects in the mother tongue and the country's official language.
- Psychological and Social Support: Providing psychological and social counselling to children and families whose mother tongue differs from the official language.
- More Research: Conduct extensive research on mother tongue education's effects on children's academic and social development.
These recommendations can help improve the education system in Iran and prevent problems arising from the lack of mother tongue education.
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Province Number of signatures Alborz 0 Ardabil 0 Bushehr 0 Chahar Mahaal and Bakhtiari 0 East Azerbaijan 0 Fars 0 Gilan 0 Golestan 0 Hamadan 0 Hormozgan 0 Ilam 0 Isfahan 1 Kerman 0 Kermanshah 0 Khuzestan 0 Kohgiluyehv And Boyer Ahmad 0 Kurdistan 1 Lorestan 0 Markazi 0 Mazandaran 0 North Khorasan 0 Qazvin 0 Qom 0 Razavi Khorasan 0 Semnan 0 Sistan and Baluchestan 0 South Khorasan 0 Tehran 2 West Azerbaijan 1 Yazd 0 Zanjan 0 This petition has received 98 signatures so far. Approximately 71% of signatures come from Iran. Approximately 29% of signatures come from outside of Iran. Learn how Daadkhast generates signature maps. -
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فواید آموزش به زبان مادری یک موضوع کاملا مطالعه شده است. اکثر کشورها بیشتر از یک زبان رسمی دارند و این نشان دهنده درست بودن این سیاست است. دانش آموزان میتوانند در کنار زبان مادری، زبان فارسی را به عنوان زبان مشترک یاد بگیرند. -
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