On February 20, 2017 at the initiative of the UNESCO Chair "Lifelong professional education in the XXI century" at the Institute of Pedagogical and Adult Education of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine a webinar on the problem "Mother-lingual and multilingual education in the context of sustainable development" commemorated to the UNESCO International Mother Language Day was held.  Co-organizers of the webinar were professors, teachers, researchers, students and undergraduates from Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko (research laboratory of researcher’s academic culture), Chernivtsi National University named after Yurii Fedkovych, the Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education of Chernivtsi Region, Hlukhiv National Pedagogical University named after Olexander Dovzhenko, Uman State Pedagogical University named after Pavlo Tychyna, Kyiv Professional Pedagogical College named after Anton Makarenko etc.

The main Theme of 2017 Day is “Towards Sustainable Futures through Multilingual Education”. Multilingual education facilitates access to education while promoting equity for populations speaking minority and/or indigenous languages, especially girls and women; it emphasizes the quality of teaching and learning with a focus on understanding and creativity; it reinforces the cognitive aspect of learning by ensuring the direct application of learning outcomes to the learner’s life through the mother tongue; it enhances dialogue and interaction between learner and teacher by allowing genuine communication from the beginning; it facilitates participation and action in society and gives access to new knowledge and cultural expressions, thus ensuring a harmonious interaction between the global and the local. (Access: http://ru.unesco.org/).

The moderator of the event was the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of NAES Ukraine, Director of the Institute of Pedagogical and Adult Education of NAES of Ukraine Larysa Lukianova, who during a salutatory speech summarized the features of mother-lingual competence formation at the various categories of adults. Welcoming remarks to the participants appealed the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of NAES Ukraine, Academician-Secretary of Professional and Adult Education Department of NAES Ukraine, Nellia Nychkalo, outlining the contradictions and prospects of mother-lingual education as the basis of multilingualism in Ukraine.

Problems of the state language functioning in sociocultural space of Ukraine was summarized in the report of the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of NAES Ukraine, Heorhii Filipchuk, who outlined the potential of Ukrainian language for nation creation, mother-lingual education in dimensions of contemporary state language policy priorities. The Member of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ivan Zaiets summarizedthe prospects of Ukrainian education development, relatable to vectors of modern legislative processes in Ukrainian society. The Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Researcher, Science Correspondent of the Institute of Pedagogical and Adult Education of NAES Ukraine, Tamara Usatenko outlined key competencies of "New Ukrainian School", among which defined the philosophical and epistemological nature of individual mother-lingual competence.

Doctor of Sciences, Professor of the Social Sciences Department, a lecturer of Preschool and Primary school Pedagogy at Lodz Higher School of Business and Health Sciences (Poland), Teresa Yanitska-Panek, marked the features of mother-lingual learning in the Polish education system.

Axiological determinants of mother-lingual teacher education in Ukraine became a subject of scientific reflection of the Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Leading Researcher of the Institute of Pedagogical and Adult Education of NAES Ukraine Oleksander Kucheriavyi.

The seminar was attended by nearly 80 scientists, educators, teachers, young researchers who discussed the problems of mother-lingual and multilingual education in the context of sustainable development within the following sections: language development as the foundation of national culture and a factor of society sustainable development; theory and practice of mother-lingual and multilingual education in Ukraine and worldwide; the development of linguistic and communicative competence of the various categories of adults.

During the discussions within sections, the following issues were brought to a focus: legal aspects and priorities of language policy in Ukraine and worldwide; philosophical and axiological principles of mother-lingual education; language development as the foundation of national culture and a factor of sustainable development; formation of intercultural tolerance by means of mother tongue; the development of linguistic and communicative competence of the various categories of adults; psychological foundations of communicative competent personality.

The National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, Department of Professional and Adult Education of NAES Ukraine, UNESCO Chair "Lifelong professional education in the XXI century" are rather grateful to webinar participants – teachers, scholars who are not indifferent to the problems of mother-lingual and multilingual education in Ukraine.

Galyna Sotska, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Researcher, head of UNESCO Chair "Lifelong professional education of the XXI century",

Myroslava Vovk, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Researcher, member of UNESCO Chair "Lifelong professional education of the XXI century",

Nataliya Avshenyuk, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Researcher, member of UNESCO Chair "Lifelong professional education of the XXI century".