The Language Working Group at CPUT's commitment to multilingualism aligns with that of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), who is observing International Mother Language (IML) Day by hosting a virtual event themed Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society.

While IML Day is observed on 21 February, the webinar will be held at 11:00 today.

For more information, visit https://www.un.org/en/observances/mother-language-day 

To register for the webinar, click here

In 1999 UNESCO declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day. The date was chosen because it commemorates the students killed during a protest in Bangladesh in 1952. They were part of a group campaigning for the official use of Bengali as their mother language.

According to UNESCO education based on the first language or mother tongue, must begin from the early years as early childhood care and education is the foundation of learning.

This year’s theme, Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society, recognises that languages and multilingualism can advance inclusion, and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals’ focus on leaving no one behind. As recently reported on the South African government’s website, linguistic diversity is increasingly threatened as more and more languages disappear. One language disappears on average every two weeks, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. It is estimated that 230 languages became extinct between 1950 and 2010.

“While our region’s indigenous languages, isiXhosa and Afrikaans are nowhere near danger of extinction, the Language Working Group still values drawing attention to the use of these languages. In 2020 CPUT had an online “Can you say” campaign to encourage students and staff to practice easy conversational phrases in our 11 official languages. This year we wear our hearts on our sleeves by telling you a little bit about our language journeys and language dreams for CPUT,” states the Language Working Group.

You can read more about this and the Faculty of Applied Sciences’ Mother Language Day virtual event on the Language Unit blog. 

Written by CPUT News
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CPUT hosts the DST-UNESCO Engineering Week on Bellville campus from 17 to 20 September 2018.

Prof Mellet Moll, Acting Dean: Faculty of Engineering, explained that the annual Engineering Week is sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and is done in collaboration with a host university. “It is a great honour for CPUT to host the event this year,” said Moll.

The week focuses on addressing the challenges of the engineering profession in Southern Africa and the rest of the continent and is also aimed at attracting learners to subjects such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The event (DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference) rotates among the nine provinces of South Africa.

The DST-UNESCO Engineering Conference starts with a day-long student conference on 17 September, with students from Engineering Faculties from all South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) invited to take part.
“Postgraduate students from engineering faculties of South African HEIs submitted abstracts and the best submissions will be presented, with prizes for the best paper and best poster presentation plus a student function which provides a chance for the students from various institutions to network”.

“The formal proceedings of the student conference will be run by academic from CPUT, UCT and Stellenbosch in collaboration with engineering students who are members of CPUT’s SRC,” said Moll.
The main conference will take place from 18 to 20 September and is free and open to all people involved in the engineering profession including industry and academia as well as people in related disciplines who are interested in the topics that will be discussed.

“We have a line-up of speakers from across the spectrum including the DST, SANSA, NRF, ECSA, CPUT, our neighbouring universities UCT and Stellenbosch as well as industry specialists.”

“Engineering finds itself in a changing landscape, especially with the advent of the Industrie 4.0 era. A lot of things have to be reframed so we selected the theme ‘Enabling the Fourth Industrial Revolution for Sustainability and Economic Growth’,” said Moll.

“The conference is divided into sub-themes which require dialogue, especially within the southern African context. These include Industrie 4.0 itself, Energy, Water, Environmental Engineering, Infrastructure, Beneficiation, Space Science, Women in Engineering and Engineering Education.”

*Students can visit the DST-UNESCO career exhibition in the Major Sports Hall on Tuesday 18 September and Wednesday 19 September between 9:00 and 16:00.

Written by Theresa Smith
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