The Bayelsa State Government is to begin the teaching of Ijaw language in both public and private schools in the state from the 2021/2022 academic session.
This was part of the resolutions reached at this week’s executive council meeting.
The move is borne out of the desire to ensure the Ijaw cultural heritage is sustained and revived..
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272 teachers are said to have been trained and employed to teach the language, starting in primary schools when pupils resume for the next academic session.
The Ijaw are widely believed to be the fourth-largest ethnic group in Nigeria.
Bayelsa State as the only homogenous Ijaw-speaking state had adopted the Kolokuma dialect as the official Ijaw language to be spoken and taught in all schools, to prevent it from going extinct.
Editor-Oloyede Oworu
