Preservation of the mother tongue has never been more important now than ever before - Gavoka

SODELPA Leader Viliame Gavoka says the preservation of the mother tongue has never been more important now than ever before as more youths are now spending more time on social media platforms and it is only logical that we bring multilingual learning to them through accessed social mediums.

Gavoka highlighted this in his message to commemorate International Mother Language Day which is celebrated today in most countries.

He says the theme for this year’s International Mother Language Day is “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and Opportunities”, which focuses on the need to integrate technology with multilingual learning.

Gavoka says in today’s ever-growing online culture, it is evident that globalisation threatens the mother tongue.

He says instead of viewing it as a threat, we need to integrate the learning of mother tongues with the technology that is available to us.

Gavoka says it is crucial for parents to impart the importance of preserving our mother tongue to their children as the question of teaching the younger generation on the importance of preserving their mother tongue is a challenge.

He says we must learn to take pride in our mother tongue and to not be ashamed of speaking it.

The SODELPA Leader says parents should use their mother tongue at home because children continue to speak in English while in school. Gavoka says we should never let go of our mother tongue because it defines who we are.

The Party Leader says it is important for the Ministry of Education to incorporate vernacular studies into our curriculum and also online.

He says we should learn to appreciate living in a country that has diverse ethnicity that allows us to learn from each other and in particular, our mother tongue.