In support of international education and multilingualism the United Nations has launched an essay writing contest among college and university students worldwide. The theme of this contest is “Many Languages, One World”. Essays must be written in either one of the six UN official languages: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish or Russian.
Priorities
The essay-writing contest is also aimed at promoting the continued learning of the six official languages of the UN. The launching was made recently at the UN Headquarters in New York through a signing ceremony. The UN Department of Public Information and the ELS Educational Services were present in the signing program. According to Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Undersecretary General for Communications and Public Information, the focus of the contest is on two priorities of the Secretary-General. These two priorities are the youth and multiculturalism. The UN Academic Impact (UNAI) is also one of the collaborators in this writing event since it is committed to multilingual education along with ELS. Mark Harris who is the CEO and President of ELS said the organizations involved in the contest hope to give a better definition of the role of the United Nations through the essay-writing event.
UN role
Harris emphasized during the event launching that every citizen of the world must support the role of the UN in advocating global peace and in highlighting the educational and spiritual growth, physical health and quality life among all people in the world. These, according to Harris, can be more effectively done by means of language and communication. Participants in the essay-writing contest must use one of the six official languages that is not their native language nor the medium of instruction used in their respective schools.
Panel of judges
The ELS Educational Services and UNAI will invite members of the panel of judges who will rate the entries in the contest. The judges will then pick 10 top winners in every language entry. These winners will go to New York in June 2014 upon invitation of the ELS to take part in more events such as a global citizenship youth forum and other 9 tenets of the UNAI. Before the forum, a conference at Adelphi University in Long Island in New York will be held in preparation for the conference proper. Lyutha Sultan Al-Mughairy, Chairperson, Committee on Information, a department that is under the UN General Assembly, said that the essay-writing contest is a remarkable project as it is an excellent way to encourage study on multilingualism.
Education as one priority
The UN is known for its continued support for human advocacies. Education is one of its top funding priorities. The agency constantly helps in providing the needs of educational system in many countries. There are various departments within the organization that are tasked to help provide the individual requirements of every nation from basic needs such as food and shelter as well as education.
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