Rivers State House of Assembly has been told not to abandon the teaching of indigenous languages in the new education bill.

The Executive Secretary, Rivers State Readers Project, Dr Tony Enyia, stated this  in Port Harcourt last Wednesday, during a public hearing organised by the House Committee On Education.

Dr Enyia said the proposed education law 2013, made scanty inputs on mother-tongue in the first schedule, section 14, pages 18-20, stating that, “African Language and literature” should be taught as a subject in secondary schools.

According to him, “the provision is therefore sidelining the enforcement of the injunction of the Rivers State Education (Teaching of Indigenous language law 2003, which provides that teaching of indigenous languages is made compulsory in all pre-primary, primary and junior secondary schools in Rivers State”.

Citing the 2003, Education law, Dr Enyia said “the Ministry of Education shall ensure that the teaching of these indigenous languages form part of the academic curricula of all affected schools”

He referred to the National Policy on Education (2004), which provides that for pre-primary and primary education, government shall ensure that the medium of instruction will be principally the mother tongue or the language of the immediate community for the first three years.

Dr Enyia, appealed to the lawmakers to take steps to reflect the teaching of mother tongue at the primary level in the proposed law, pointing out that the objective of Rivers State Readers Project is to develop 17 approved languages of Rivers State.

The Executive Secretary referring to Dr Lakan Are, blamed children’s inability to speak their mother-tongue on parents, who think it elitist for their children to speak only in English rather than their mother-tongue.

He, however, commended the Commissioner for Education, Dame Alice Lawrence Nemi, for directing that computerised teaching modules being used by Educomp Consultant, running the Model Secondary School at Eleme for all the subjects, Biology, Chemistry, Government, History etc, should be translated into the 17 approved Rivers indigenous languages.

According to him, the 17 approved indigenous languages are Abuan, Degema, Etche, Egbema, Ekpeye, Eleme, Engene, Gokana, Ibani, Ikwerre, Kalabari, Khana, Ndoni, Obolo, Odual, Ogba, and Okrika.