40% of global population lacks access to education in language they know: UNESCO

A report by UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team has found that 40% of the global population do not have access to education in a language they are familiar with, which increases to 90% in some low—and middle-income countries.

Despite growing recognition of the importance of home languages in education across many countries, policy implementation remains limited due to a lack of teacher training, inadequate learning materials, and community resistance, it said.

The report titled "Languages Matter: Global Guidance on Multilingual Education" was released on the 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day which celebrates the dedicated efforts to preserve and promote the use of mother tongues.

"Today 40% of people globally lack access to education in the language they speak and understand fluently. In some low- and middle-income countries, this figure rises to 90%. More than a quarter of a billion learners are affected," said a senior GEM team member.

"The first thing to note is that over this decade, which has been marked by the pervasive influence of technology in young people's lives but also by the impact of COVID-19, learning levels have dropped sharply in both reading and mathematics. But the next thing to note is that the impact has been disproportionate on disadvantaged learners due to linguistic reasons," the official added.

It highlighted that because of rising migration, linguistic diversity is becoming a global reality and classrooms with learners from diverse language backgrounds are more common.

The GEM officials said that over a quarter of a billion learners are affected and urged the nations to implement multilingual education policies and practices with the goal of creating educational systems that benefit all learners.

It also underlined the widening educational gap between students who learn in their native language and those who do not.

From 2010 to 2022, the disparity in reading scores between these groups grew from 12 to 18 percentage points, while the gap in mathematics widened from 10 to 15 points.

This indicates that learners who do not speak the language of instruction at home, whether for historical reasons or due to migration and displacement, face a bigger risk of learning loss.

As linguistic diversity is increasing globally, especially with migration and displacement, classrooms are becoming more multilingual, posing new challenges for education systems.

Over 31 million displaced youth are facing language barriers in education.

The report comes amid India’s introduction of the new National Education Policy (NEP) that advocates multilingual education.

However, the three-language policy by the central government in school education has drawn opposition from some states.

Colonial policies historically enforced dominant languages, widening educational disparities.

Today, nations with large immigrant populations grapple with challenges in instruction, assessment, and curriculum design.
UNESCO’s report has called for context-specific multilingual education policies, curriculum adjustments for language transitions, and teacher training in both home and secondary languages.

"Countries face diverse linguistic challenges in education, stemming from both historical and contemporary factors. In the first category, often as a legacy of colonialism, languages have been imposed on local populations that prevented their use for instruction and created educational disparities,” the report said.

"At the same time, large linguistic diversity in some countries presents challenges for education systems, as resources for implementing multilingual education programmes tend to be limited," it added.

It also recommends developing inclusive learning environments, implementing bridging language programs for immigrant students, and fostering collaboration between school leaders, parents, and communities to promote linguistic inclusion in education.