”Many languages, one future: Youth voices on multilingual education”: a special UNESCO Campus, organized to celebrate the 2026 International Mother Language Day.
Across the world, young people are speaking up for their languages, sharing their cultures, and building bridges across differences. For all of us, language is more than a way to communicate — it is identity, belonging, and a connection to culture, history and knowledge.
Multilingual education helps students learn better, gain confidence, and participate fully in society. Yet, millions of learners around the world still don’t have access to education in a language they understand best.
Programme
1/ Multilingual education with Justine Sass, Chief of the Section of Education for Inclusion and Gender Equality at UNESCO Headquarters. Her Section supports countries to transform their education systems so that gender equality, inclusion, and human dignity are not add-ons, but foundations of learning for all.
2/ Language transmission: testimony of Justin Langan, Métis youth leader and Indigenous advocate from Manitoba, Canada. He is the Executive Director of O’KANATA, a youth-led organization that empowers Indigenous youth through cultural preservation, education, eco-literacy, and skills development. His work focuses on strengthening identity, supporting intergenerational knowledge transfer, and promoting Indigenous languages and youth voices.
3/ Supporting multilingual education through innovative teaching practices with Yohann Teste.
Trained in visual arts and education, Yohann is a teacher and teacher trainer with extensive experience in multilingual education. He supports schools and teaching teams in developing inclusive, multilingual teaching practices, and works closely with educators to strengthen language learning across subjects and learning environments. His work focuses on innovative pedagogy, teacher training, and helping learners engage with languages as a gateway to culture and the world.
Multilingual education is a shared priority across all UNESCO sectors — Education, Sciences, Culture, and Communication and Information — and is also strongly supported by the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and the SDG4Youth network to name a few. This International Mother Language Day shows the power of collaboration and collective action.
