International Mother Tongue Day
On 21 February 2013 the Ministry of Education and UNESCO commemorated the International Mother Tongue Day at the Delta Nova Conference Hall in Dili under the theme: “Preserve Mother Tongue through Books”.
The Minister of Education, Bendito Freitas, stated that “as an independent State, we have the obligation to promote patrimonial and cultural values. In implementing our policy to defend and protect cultural values, we cannot forget that mother tongue is part of our identity. Moreover, it is through our mother tongue that we, as human beings, establish the initial contacts with the community until such time as we are integrated into society and the world, a stage where there is a complexity of knowledge.”
“The Ministry of Education fully supports the use of the mother tongue to serve as a bridge and facilitate the students during the initial years of scolarity, notably at the pre-school and basic education levels, thereby establishing a solid foundation for the children to pursue their studies at a higher level”, the Minister added.
The Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, stressed that #the use of the mother tongue in education aims at facilitating the understanding of the students insofar as the objects or concepts in literacy or numeracy are concerned. I advocate the use of the mother tongue because this is our heritage and it is through it that we show to the world what we really are.”
In addition to the Minister of Education and the Prime Minister, also in attendance were the Deputy Minister for Basic Education, Dulce Soares; the Minister for Social Solidarity, Isabel Guterres; the Secretary of State for Arts and Culture, Isabel Ximenes; the Chairman of the Commission F of the National Parliament; representatives of national and international NGOs; religious partners; the Teachers’ Union; representatives of mother tongues; representatives of UNESCO; and students from the Rembor pilot-school.
