Why is it in the news?
Observed on 21 February alongside UNESCO’s State of the Education Report (SoER) 2025.
The report highlights 44% of children face language mismatch in schooling.
Category: Polity
Important Points:
● Declared by UNESCO in 1999; observed globally since 2000
● Commemorates 1952 Bangla Language Movement in Dhaka
● 2026 theme: “Youth Voices on Multilingual Education”
● SoER 2025 titled “Bhasha Matters”
● 44% children enter school in different language than medium of instruction
● NEP 2020 mandates home language instruction till Grade 5 (preferably Grade 8)
● Article 350A mandates mother tongue instruction at primary stage
● India has 1,369 mother tongues; 121 spoken by over 10,000 people
● Nearly 200 languages vulnerable or endangered