MANILA, Philippines —  Recognizing the very significant role the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) plays in the overall scheme to improve learning outcomes among school children, the Department of Education (DepEd) will join the world in the celebration of International Mother Language Day (IMLD) on Monday, February 21.

Through Memorandum No. 19, series 2011, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that DepEd supports the declaration of the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to celebrate such to promote linguistic and cultural diversity as universal values that strengthen the unity and cohesion of societies.

With theme “Making Every Child a Reader through MTB-MLE,” Luistro said that the celebration challenges DepEd to explore more possibilities on how MTB-MLE can help our country achieve the 2015 Education for All (EFA) goals, particularly in making every child a reader.