UNESCO has long recognized that the language of instruction as well as knowledge of languages play
key roles in learning. In order to promote quality in children’s opportunities to learn, UNESCO’s Global
Monitoring Report (2008a) underscores the need to “recognize the importance of mother tongue instruction
in early childhood and the first years of primary school” (p. 4). In addition to the goal of equitable access to
educational achievement for all, UNESCO advocates that the goal of protecting children’s first languages and
preserving the world’s linguistic diversity also requires intensive efforts to ensure that children have the right
to learn in their mother tongue. Contemporary issues in language maintenance and the goal of Education
for All call for immediate practical solutions to increase the availability of quality mother tongue based bi/
multilingual education for young children. Th e current review was undertaken with a view to informing
eff orts to operationalize the existing normative frameworks, established in several United Nations human
rights conventions and other standard setting instruments cited at the outset of the current review.