ID :
181749
Thu, 05/12/2011 - 12:18
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/181749
The shortlink copeid
CHILDREN EXCEL WHEN LEARNING IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE - UNESCO DG
PARIS, May 12 (Bernama) -- Children who learn in their native language, especially at primary-school level, are likely to perform well, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) director-general Irina Bokova said.
She said there is field evidence to show that children who received primary education in their mother tongue performed "much much better" at school.
She told Malaysian journalists at Unesco's headquarters in Paris on
Wednesday that there were several instances in different parts of the world, such as Mexico and Peru, to prove the effectiveness of education in native languages.
She said, in principle, Unesco's policy was to encourage the teaching of native languages, especially during primary education and for difficult curriculums.
"I know it is costly, difficult to organise and needs textbooks. But the quality of education improves when lessons are taught in the mother tongue," she noted.
In 2009, the Malaysian government announced its decision to switch the teaching of Mathematics and Science from English to Malay, a move that sparked debates about its implementation.
Bokova also commended Malaysia's National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for the education sector and said that the initiative facilitated Malaysia's education for all (EFA) programme, which she described as a 'positive development'.
She said that having a management tool similar to the key performance indicator (KPI) was important for efficiency and accountability in education.
She added that Unesco was also helping certain countries to establish management tools for education.
Under the NKRA for education, efforts are being made to increase access to early education programmes by increasing the pre-school enrolment rate, enhancing student literacy and numeric skills, creating high-performance schools and providing incentives for excellent school leaders and teachers to improve the quality of educators.
She said there is field evidence to show that children who received primary education in their mother tongue performed "much much better" at school.
She told Malaysian journalists at Unesco's headquarters in Paris on
Wednesday that there were several instances in different parts of the world, such as Mexico and Peru, to prove the effectiveness of education in native languages.
She said, in principle, Unesco's policy was to encourage the teaching of native languages, especially during primary education and for difficult curriculums.
"I know it is costly, difficult to organise and needs textbooks. But the quality of education improves when lessons are taught in the mother tongue," she noted.
In 2009, the Malaysian government announced its decision to switch the teaching of Mathematics and Science from English to Malay, a move that sparked debates about its implementation.
Bokova also commended Malaysia's National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for the education sector and said that the initiative facilitated Malaysia's education for all (EFA) programme, which she described as a 'positive development'.
She said that having a management tool similar to the key performance indicator (KPI) was important for efficiency and accountability in education.
She added that Unesco was also helping certain countries to establish management tools for education.
Under the NKRA for education, efforts are being made to increase access to early education programmes by increasing the pre-school enrolment rate, enhancing student literacy and numeric skills, creating high-performance schools and providing incentives for excellent school leaders and teachers to improve the quality of educators.
