76 | Zimbabwe Rule of Law Journal i. Mother tongue education The right to education in UN treaties was not initially intended to include the right to mother tongue education.56 However, a later realisation concluded that the right to education cannot be fully enjoyed without involvement of the mother tongue.57 Education involves the transfer of information which is most effective when the recipient understands the language used in transmitting education.58 Mother tongue education is also important for the preservation of the language and traditions of the culture conveyed through it to future generations;59 and impacts the emotional, cognitive and socio-cultural development of students.60 In any event, substantive equality and equality of opportunity demands that education is offered in the mother tongue to facilitate equal access to education by marginalised, disadvantaged and vulnerable linguistic minorities to avoid later repercussions on access to jobs and political power. That is the reason why mother tongue education is a concept widely acceptable under international, regional and foreign comparative law. For instance, the right of migrant workers’ children61 and indigenous people to be educated in their mother tongue are vividly recognised under the International Labour Organisation Conventions No. 10762 and 169.63 Policies like additive bilingualism have been developed to ensure that learning a second language should not be to the detriment of the mother tongue.64 Article 18 of the Cultural Charter for Africa affords states the discretion to choose one or more African languages to introduce at all levels of education. This choice could be guided by the ‘sliding-scale 56 See article 26 of the Universal Declaration, the travaux preparatoires of the Universal Declaration and the Belgian Linguistic Case 1 EHRR 252 (1965) 57 See G Sieminsky, Working paper on the education rights of minorities: The Hague Recommendation UN Doc. E/CN.4/ Sub.2/AC.5/1997/ WP.3, 5 May 1997, 2. 58 T Skutnabb-Kangas ‘Language policy and political issues in education’ in S May & N Hornberger (eds – 2nd ed) Encyclopedia of Language and Education (2008) 107-119. 59 K Henrard op cit 10 at 257-258. 60 T Skutnabb-Kangas, Bilinguialism or not: The education of minorities, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters (1981) 118-119. 61 Arts 45(3) and (4) of the CMW. 62 Art 23. 63 Art 28(1). 64 D Young, “The role and the status of the First Language in Education in a multilingual society” in K Heugh et al (eds) Multilingual education for South Africa, (1995) Johannesburg: Heinemann 63 68 argues that the mother tongue should continue to be used throughout various levels of education even when a second language is introduced.