Most Indonesian schools struggling with bilingual education issue<\/p>\n
Eric E. Hallett, Jakarta<\/p>\n
In previous articles, Alex Tubagus and Jan Dormer addressed
\nissues about bilingual education predominately within the domain
\nof National Plus schools or their equivalent. This provides an
\nextremely useful perspective of one segment of the education
\nmarket, but fails to recognize that most schools offering
\nbilingual instruction in Indonesia fall far short of the National
\nPlus level and are struggling with entirely different challenges.<\/p>\n
These mostly private and local schools have no native speaking
\nteachers, let alone poorly qualified ones. They have no long-term
\nstrategy for teaching in English. Their teachers are embarrassed
\nwhen corrected by students as the teachers attempt to provide
\nsimple instruction in English. Yet, all of these schools have a
\nmandate from their stakeholders (administrators, parents,
\nuniversities) -- use English in the classroom or lose your
\nstudents to schools that do.<\/p>\n
This leaves the door wide open in schools across the nation to
\nwhat Jan Dormer describes as \"highly damaging\" bilingual
\neducation. Teachers overextend themselves linguistically and use
\nimproper grammar and sentence structure which confuses the
\nstudents. Precious classroom time is used to incorrectly
\ntranslate vocabulary without proper supporting materials.
\nStudents learn a random mix-and-match of academic words and terms
\nwithout learning the accompanying language skills to express
\nthose words in discussions. And the list goes on.<\/p>\n
The problems challenging schools at the National Plus level
\nare worthy of debate and our consideration. I am suggesting,
\nhowever, that another important issue on the bilingual agenda for
\nIndonesia be considered as well. That is, the simple fact that
\nmost Indonesian schools are headed for disaster with their
\nbilingual programs because a \"survival of the fittest\"
\nenvironment is forcing them to undertake instruction that is
\nbeyond their capability. They simply cannot implement a sound,
\nbalanced bilingual curriculum without adequate resources and
\nproperly trained teachers, which they do not have.<\/p>\n
As educators we often look to well-developed, successful
\nbilingual programs in developed countries as role models of
\nsuccess and how things should be done in Indonesia. However, we
\nmust not forget that these types of programs are also partially
\nor completely subsidized by local and national government
\nfunding, or financed by well-to-do parents and corporations in
\nsocieties with high per-capita income. The same access to
\nresources for providing quality bilingual education is just not
\navailable to most parents and students in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In a previous article I argued that government standardization
\nof bilingual education would help alleviate some of the problems
\nthat schools are facing and help level the playing field. This
\nargument assumes that government funding would also be available
\nto help schools adhere to required criteria for program
\nstandardization. My assumption may be somewhat overambitious
\ngiven the ongoing inability of the Indonesian government to
\nadequately finance many programs that are needed in areas like
\neducation and social welfare.<\/p>\n
With high-cost, quick fix solutions from the government beyond
\nreach at the moment, ambitious educators are considering
\nalternative ways to provide bilingual education in schools which
\nare not able to afford the salaries of native-speaking teachers
\nand costly, imported curriculum. They are embracing a more long-
\nterm outlook for implementing bilingual instruction which
\nincludes the training of existing teachers with limited language
\nskills and the progressive development of a local bilingual
\ncurriculum over time.<\/p>\n
There are going to have to be compromises in how we approach
\nbilingual education if Indonesia wants to keep pace with the rest
\nof the world, and if bilingual education in Indonesia is to be
\nmade available to the majority of the population.<\/p>\n
For example, these alternative seeking educators must
\nnecessarily allow Bahasa Indonesia and English to co-exist in the
\nsame classroom and be used to discuss the same topics as teachers
\nwork their way toward higher levels of fluency. Unlike some
\n\"immersion\" models of instruction that suggest using only one
\nlanguage at a time in the class, this approach allows both
\nteacher and student to increase their understanding of a topic in
\ntwo languages while accommodating their shortcomings in English
\nfluency at the same time.<\/p>\n
School administrators and parents are going to have to drop
\ntheir expectations about the levels of English used in the
\nclassroom and encourage teachers to begin using simple, directive
\nEnglish to begin with as they improve their conversational skills
\nand vocabulary over the long-term.<\/p>\n
Eventually, these types of compromises will provide a way for
\nthe majority of Indonesian schools using English in the classroom
\nto play catch-up with their more resourceful National Plus
\ncounterparts. Unique challenges require unique solutions, even if
\nthe solutions are not ideal.<\/p>\n
The cost to Indonesian society of isolating bilingual
\neducation in one resource-laden segment of the education market
\nis too great. We need to also address the challenge of providing
\ninstruction in English to a broader range of students who attend
\nless privileged, but equally important schools. Without this
\nwidening of our focus these schools are indeed going to find
\nthemselves once again unable to provide good educational value
\nwhich will contribute to the ever increasing gap between socio-
\neconomic groups in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
The writer is the Principal Consultant and Adviser to IPECS
\nConsulting Indonesia, a communications consultancy specializing
\nin bilingual education. He can be reached at ipecs@cbn.net.id.<\/p>",
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