On September 9, 2024, the educational network voXmi was awarded the prestigious King Sejong Literacy Prize at an international conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, held in celebration of International Literacy Day 2024. This award, funded by the Republic of Korea, recognizes initiatives and programs that make an outstanding contribution to education promoting multilingualism and peace.
This award brought global recognition to the longstanding efforts of the Universities of Education in Vienna, Styria, Salzburg, and Vorarlberg, as well as to all schools and kindergartens active in the voXmi network. Ursula Mauric, voXmi’s national coordinator at the University of Education in Vienna, accepted the award on behalf of all the educational institutions within the voXmi network.
The acronym “voXmi” stands for “learning and experiencing languages with and from one another.” The goal is to enhance educational opportunities for comprehensive language education, with a focus on linguistic diversity and multilingualism, and to strengthen human and children’s rights related to language. The Universities of Education, voXmi schools, and voXmi kindergartens actively oppose racism and linguicism, fostering peaceful and cooperative coexistence in society. For this purpose, these institutions define and implement development goals based on the voXmi quality framework and its four guiding principles:
voXmi schools and kindergartens…
- consider all languages as equal and regard linguistic diversity as a valuable resource.
- offer learners a wide range of opportunities to learn languages with and from one another.
- implement “language-conscious” educational opportunities to ensure that educational processes are inclusive and accessible.
- fully utilize digital media to overcome language barriers and enable online communication with other young people.
Complete text in German available at: https://phwien.ac.at/aktuelles/unesco-literacy-prize-an-voxmi/