The Bayelsa State Government has charged parents to endeavour to teach their local dialects to their children in order to preserve their mother tongue.

Commissioner for Ijaw National Affairs, Patrick Erasmus, gave the charge while speaking at the 2022 International Mother Language Day event in Yenagoa on Saturday.

The theme of this year’s celebration is, ‘Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities, which raises the potential role of technology to advance multilingual education and support the development of quality teaching and learning for all.

Erasmus said the state government was working to institutionalise the teaching of the Ijaw language in public and private schools in the state.

Stressing the importance of language, he said the government had adopted the Kolokuma dialect in its policy as a central Ijaw language to be taught in the state.

Erasmus, who was represented by Governor Douye Diri’s Special Adviser on Ijaw National Affairs, Oyinfie Jonjon, said that about 200 Izon teachers had been trained to teach the Ijaw language in primary schools across the local government areas.

According to him, the government was motivated by a need to preserve the Ijaw language, including the central Kolokuma dialect, and other languages spoken by communities.

The commissioner said, “Most of our young children today are unable to communicate with their mother’s tongue and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has repeatedly said that most of the languages will face extinction in a matter of time.

“The Bayelsa State government has, thus, affected plans to commence the teaching of the Izon language- that is the Kolokuma dialect- in public and private schools across the state in the current academic session beginning from primary school.

“Some 200 Izon teachers have been recruited and given the necessary training for the purpose and will be redeployed to primary schools in all the eight local government areas of the state.”