MUHAMMADIYAH.OR.ID, SOFIFI – Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Abdul Mu’ti opened the 2025 International Mother Language Day celebration on February 20 in North Maluku. He emphasized the importance of preserving mother languages and expressed full support for efforts to protect them.
Mu’ti stated that protecting mother languages is a key initiative of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The ministry fully backs programs run by the Agency for Language Development and Cultivation to promote this cause.
The 2025 International Mother Language Day celebration aims to raise awareness of the role of mother languages in education, encourage multilingual learning, and strengthen the preservation of regional languages. Mu’ti highlighted diverse linguistic heritage of Indonesia and stressed the importance of maintaining local languages while using the Indonesian language as a unifying tool.
“The strength of Indonesia lies in its rich mother languages while also having Indonesian as a unifying language,” he said.
Mu’ti called for balance, commitment, and collective awareness to support the growth of the Indonesian language while preserving regional languages, which are integral to cultural identity.
“May we all remain committed and aware of the need to develop the Indonesian language while protecting regional and mother languages as part of our cultural heritage,” stated Mu’ti.
According to Ethnologue.com, 44 percent of the world’s languages are at risk of extinction, with many losing speakers. In Indonesia, which has 718 regional languages, research by the Australian National University (ANU) predicted that around 441 may disappear by the end of the 21st century.
