01 November 2017

UNICEF gives Tuvan children a better chance to learn with mother-tongue textbooks


Uudoo is rehearsing the poem she wrote in Tuvan that she will recite at her graduation ceremony.
©UNICEFMongolia/2017/OdgerelMyagmar
Nearly 1,800 kilometres from Ulaanbaatar on the western-most edge of Mongolia, remote Tsengel soum in Bayan-Ulgii province is probably the only place in the entire country where children grow up speaking three different languages – Tuvan, Kazakh and Mongolian. Tuvan children speak their native language at home and learn Mongolian when they start school. Some also learn Kazakh from their friends in the neighbourhood, which is predominantly Kazakh, or from their classmates when they start secondary school, which is also attended by Kazakh children.