TheCable

The Igbo Women Assembly (IWA), a non-political group, has created a scholarship at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to encourage the study of Igbo language.

The group said the move is aimed at preventing Igbo from dying as UNILAG considers ending its Igbo language programme.

NAN reports that Nneka Chimezie, the national president of IWA, spoke about the group’s initiatives in Umuahia, Abia state, on Wednesday.

Chimezie said there is a plan by the linguistics department at UNILAG to close the study of Igbo due to the lack of interested students.

She said IWA decided to put measures in place to offer scholarships to candidates interested in studying Igbo in the institution.

Chimezie urged candidates for the next Joint Admissions and Matriculation Examinations (JAMB) to take advantage of the scholarship scheme.

She said the language is under threat due to the dominance and preference for English among contemporary Igbo natives.

The IWA president said younger Igbo parents now prefer to communicate with their children in English and not their mother tongue.

She said the language could slide into extinction if urgent steps are not taken to reverse the trend.

“Languages go through stages one to 11 in the process of going into extinction. And like cancer, which becomes incurable at stage four, a language goes into extinction or dies, when it progresses to stage 11,” Chimezie said.

“Our research shows that the Igbo language is at stage eight and once it gets to stage 11, it goes into extinction. It means the situation has become incurable.”

Chimezie said that IWA also established a primary school in Lagos to teach the Igbo language, culture, and tradition exclusively.

She, however, said the initiative is threatened by the lack of teachers to teach Igbo.