The non-implementation of
the Rivers State Education (Teaching of Indigenous Languages) law of 2003 has been identified as a major challenge in the development of indigenous languages.
The Executive Secretary of the “Rivers State Readers Project,” Dr. Tony Enyia, disclosed this in his presentation at a two-day training workshop on the development of Rivers State Languages Orthographies Manuals in Port Harcourt.
According to him, the provisions of the law, which was gazetted and published in 2005 made it clear that, “teaching of indigenous languages was compulsory for all pre-primary, primary and junior secondary schools in Rivers State.”
He said, at the end of the teaching, pupils were to be “examined at the end of primary six in the first school leaving certificate, and also junior secondary three leaving certificate examination. But that is not happening.”
Dr. Enyia explained that it is in a bid to resolve this and other impediments to the development of indigenous Rivers State languages that the Rivers State Readers Project deemed it necessary to hold the training workshop.
The Rivers State Readers scribe also identified lack of fund as another key challenge to the development of indigenous languages in the state.
“The main challenges we faced was that for five years of our existence, we did not get any fund, no money came in, and the approved estimated appropriations were not released for obvious reasons,” he said.
Such reasons, he continued, are government’s preference to invest in projects that can be seen, which includes road, schools, classroom blocks and health centres.
He, however, noted that government, under the leadership of Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi, has lately developed interest in the language project, and commended the Governor for such interest.
“We do hope that the interest will be sustained by releasing approved budgetary appropriation so that we would be able to run the project. We need fund to be able to do anything.
“We’ve been stretching the little fund we have got to be able to accomplish the little we have done,” he concluded.
The 17 languages being developed by the Rivers State Readers Project are Abua, Degema, Egbema, Ekpeye, Egeni, Etche, Eleme, Gokana, Ikwerre, Ibani, Khana, Kalabari, Ndoni, Odual, Ogba, Obolo and Okrika respectively.