Education
Rivers Ranks 2nd In Language Development
Rivers State has emerged
2nd in the development of indigenous languages in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of “Rivers State Readers Project,” Dr Tony Enyia disclosed this last Thursday, in an exclusive interview with The Tide.
Dr. Enyia, who made this known during a two-day training workship on the development of “Rivers State Languages Orthographies Manual” in Port Harcourt, stated that the state achieved the feat by developing 14 orthography manuals at a time. An achievement which “no other state in the federation has done.
“We (Rivers State Readers Project) were the first to develop them (languages) and get them approved and published by the federal government in two volumes of the Nigeria Orthographies Manuals, volume 9 and 10,” he said.
According to Dr. Enyia, the development of the 14 Orthography Manuals was in line with the federal government’s requirements for indigenous Nigeria languages to be taught in schools.
“The development of the Orthography Manual is the first step towards the development of a language.
“The federal government requires that there must be orthography if the language will be taught,” he explained.
This, he said, was in accordance with the prescription of the National Quality on Education (NQE) which recommended that teaching of Indigenous Nigerian Languages be made compulsory in the first three years of the country’s school curriculum.
“The NQE prescribe that children should be taught their mother tongue or the language of the immediate community for the first three years that is primary 1-3.
This means that all instruction and teaching will be done in the language of their community. English will only be taught as a subject in the time table,” he explained further.
The Rivers State Readers Project scribe continued that the state achieved the feat out of 53 language projects in Nigeria, with Professor Aliyu Babatunde Fafunwa taking the first position.
Professor Fafunwa, he said, worked on Yoruba Language at the University of Ile-Ife, and it was later found that those who studied in Yoruba did better in Mathematics and Science than those who studied in English.
In his address, the representive of the executive secretary of the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council, NERDC Mr. Garba Gando, commended the Rivers State Government for its investment in education generally, noting that it is second to none in Nigeria.
The River State Commissioner for Education, Dr Peters Nwagor has called on media practitioners in Rivers State to deploy their various communication platforms toward promoting government programmes and policies aimed at achieving sustainable development in the education sector. Dr. Nwagor made the appeal when members of the Etche Ethnic Practicing Journalists (EEPJ) paid him a courtesy visit in Office in Port Harcourt. The Commissioner emphasized the strategic role of the media in shaping public perception, promoting government initiatives, and supporting policies capable of improving the quality of education and human capital development in the state. According to him, constructive media engagement remains essential in creating public awareness on educational reforms, students’ welfare, infrastructural improvements, and other interventions being implemented by the state government. Speaking on the recent appro
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