Grunnegs and Drèents will have a permanent place in the classroom with MOI

Starting in school year 2025-2026, the educational programme MOI: Meertalig Onderwijs in Grunnen en Drenthe (Multilingual Education in Grunnen and Drenthe) will give regional language a permanent place in primary education. MOI brings Grunnegs and Drèents playfully into the classroom, as a structural part of daily teaching practice.

Learning language through innovative tools

The programme promotes multilingualism and language awareness and offers primary schools not only teaching materials and refresher courses for teachers, but also innovative tools, such as a speech robot and automatic translation systems. No separate “regional language” lesson, but for example Grunnegs during a music lesson or Drèents in a story during world orientation.

Building on regional language together

MOI is an initiative of Erfgoed in Groningen, Huus van de Taol, NHL Stenden Hogeschool and the University of Groningen. From the Faculty of Arts, Martijn Wieling is involved as project leader from the academic side. Additionally, The Faculty of Arts is also making an important contribution to the development of the language and speech technology supporting the programme.

The project is funded from Nij Begun's Social Agenda, which in principle provides support for 30 years. The project period runs in five-year cycles. During the first five years, two to three PhD students and a postdoc are involved from the Literature department: one PhD student researches the evaluation of the educational approach, the others develop language and speech technology for the Lower Saxon to support the education programme.

Primary schools in Groningen and Drenthe are invited to apply for participation in MOI from September.

More information

For more information about Nij Begun's Social Agenda visit www.nijbegun.nl.