AILA Newsletter – MARCH 2025

This year marks the quarter-century of dedicated efforts to preserve linguistic diversity and promote the use of mother tongue languages in education.

To celebrate this milestone, UNESCO is launching a new report

Languages matter: Global guidance on multilingual education

which highlights the urgent need to include multilingualism in education systems so that children learn in a language they understand and speak fluently.

Today, 40 % of people globally lack access to education in the language they speak and understand fluently. In some low- and middle-income countries, this figure rises to 90%. More than a quarter of a billion learners are affected.

According to

UNESCO’s World Atlas of Languages

, there are 7,000 languages, spoken or signed, in use in the world today – and only 351 languages are used as the medium of instruction.

The new report was presented during a global event

Languages matter: Silver Jubilee Celebration of International Mother Language Day

, organized at UNESCO in Paris on 20 and 21 February 2025.