CSU President Rolyn C. Daguil took pride in hosting the convergence as a platform for sharing knowledge, experiences, and opportunities in indigenous languages and mother tongues, as the activity featured plenary sessions, parallel paper and poster presentations with topics on language, literacy, and lifelong learning, workshops, policy forums, and exhibits.
“Languages are vessels of our cultural heritage and essential components of identity and belonging for communities. Together, let us strive to uphold the rich tapestry of linguistic diversity and ensure that everyone is heard and valued,” Daguil said.
Dr. Joy C. Capistrano, president of ASSCAT, welcomed the participants, stating, “One of the vital solutions to solve the education crisis in the country is to reshape language, literacy, and lifelong learning. The higher education institutions (HEI) in Caraga have established their own niche relevant to indigenous people (IP) education, multicultural education, and multilingual education.”
According to the Ethnologue guide, there are 7,139 officially known languages in the world, but this number is declining.
By optimistic estimates, at least 50 percent of today’s spoken languages will be extinct or seriously endangered by 2100.
More pessimistic but also realistic estimates claim that 90-95 percent will become extinct or seriously endangered by the end of this century. Most of these languages are indigenous languages. Humanity may well have only 300-600 oral languages left that are unthreatened by the end of this century.