KHYBER: In connection with International Mother Language Day, a gathering was organized at Bacha Khan Chowk, Landi Kotal Bazaar on Wednesday aimed to approve mother language as a medium of education in schools.
Under the banner of the local youth community, a number of political elites,members of civil society participated in the moot.
Addressing on the occasion speakers including Aftab Shinwari, Nisar Shinwari, local leader of Pakistan People Party Shah Rehman Shinwari and others highlighted of the importance of mother language and said the government had ignored the importance of the mother tongue that had created a sense of deprivation among the speakers of various local languages.
Mother language is the identity of a community and reflects the culture and traditions of its speakers, they added and said mother language should be inducted as a compulsory subject in curriculum for private and state-run schools.
The speakers said that the adoption of the mother languages as medium of instruction in schools would develop the local languages and would also help increase literacy rate in the country.
The purpose of celebration of the language day was to develop better understanding among different ethnic groups in the country, they remarked.
They also urged the local traders and shopkeepers to write their sign boards in their mother language,Pashto.
It is to be mentioned here that Feb 21 was selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1999.The declaration came up in tribute to the Language Movement done by the Bangladeshi that caused the killing of four students in Dhaka on Feb 21, 1952.
