> "Preservation of languages is our concern, and should be our > concern," says Narang, adding the mother tongue should be used as the medium > of instruction at the primary school level.
The language activist Tove Skutnabb-Kangas calls it 'linguistic genocide'. She argues forcefully that the best 'package' is 8-10 years of mother-tongue medium education with good quality and gradual teaching of the dominant language(s) by bilingual teachers in non-fee-paying state schools. She says that all the education-research shows that this is the most inclusive model, especially for children of minority groups and indigenous peoples. See Dunbar, Robert & Skutnabb-Kangas, Tove (2008). Forms of Education of Indigenous Children as Crimes Against Humanity? Expert paper written for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII). New York: PFII. [In PFII' system: "Presented by Lars-Anders Baer, in collaboration with Robert Dunbar, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Ole Henrik Magga"]. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/E_C19_2008_7.pdf A more accesible version is her talk (in English) "Language, Education and (violations of) Human Rights" which can be heard at http://www.linguistic-rights.org/tove-skutnabb-kangas/ - it can also be downloaded (as an mp3 file) at http://www.linguistic-rights.org/sonoj/12_Tove_Skutnabb-Kangas_Language_Education_and_(violations_of)_Human_Rights_1012.mp3 There is also a PDF version of her talk at http://www.linguistic-rights.org/dokumento/Geneve_24_April_2008_UEA_UNHCHR.pdf This was a keynote that she gave in April 2008 at a symposium "Linguistic Rights in the World, the current situation: A Symposium to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Universal Esperanto Association and the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights". Regards A Giridhar RAO Universal Esperanto Association ****** Dr A Giridhar RAO 703 Alpine Heights, 6-3-1085/1 Raj Bhavan Road, Somajiguda, Hyderabad 500082. ****** On Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 11:35 AM, EI Blogger <[email protected]>
