25 Feb 2024

Mother tongue is a critical element of heritage, which communities across the world need to treasure and preserve for posterity, Minister of Youth, Gender, Sports and Culture, Mr Tumiso Rakgare has said. 

Officiating at the National Languages Day in Sebina recently, Mr Rakgare said when the United Nations General Assembly through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched the International Year of Languages in 2008, it urged countries to commit to linguistic diversity and multilingualism hence the commemoration of the day. 

Minister Rakgare said this was done in the spirit of achieving linguistic diversity as an essential element for not only sustainable development but also for connecting communities across the world hence preserving the heritage of respective communities as they continued to identify their rich mother tongue. 

He noted that this year’s theme; My Language, My Pride’, called for Batswana to learn to appreciate their local languages as a symbol of the rich diverse cultures of the country. 

“We communicate, express ourselves better and better understand one another by using our mother tongue,” he said. 

In Botswana, Mr Rakgare highlighted that Setswana was recognised as the national language and was used as a medium to communicate, translate and put forward the country’s socio-cultural and economic values. 

However, he said this did not side line the other local languages, which respective Batswana have to use and preserve in their communities. 

The minister added that one of the pillars for Vision 2036; Achieving prosperity for all, recognised and encouraged every Motswana to seek prosperity and live the enjoyment of their full potential through engaging in all meaningful activities that contribute collectively to society’s common goal and purpose. 

Thus, he said, languages were an important ingredient of prosperity as Batswana would be able to engage and communicate well through their mother tongue since the government had taken a deliberate action to transform education at grassroot level by introducing the use of local languages as medium of instruction in preschools and at lower level of Standard One and Two. 

This move, the minister asserted, it would enhance learner/teacher interaction and ultimately yield good results for it would be easier for children starting school to get a better understanding. 

Meanwhile, UNESCO representative, Mr Tshireletso Modikwa said Botswana was moving in the right direction of helping its people to recognise and value their languages, noting that some local languages were waning off because the inhabitants were no longer interested in speaking them. 

He stated that having local languages being used as medium of instruction at lower primary level would help children from those communities to preserve their languages,  besides enabling them to grasp the breakthrough concept of education. Ends