Bonjour in a Nation Still Struggling to Read

Standing before French President Emmanuel Macron during a bilateral meeting, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto confidently stated: ‘I have now instructed that all levels of Indonesian schools must learn French, in light of future global developments.’ The statement sounded grand, diplomatic, and modern, as if Indonesia were advancing towards a more elite and cosmopolitan global engagement. Yet, a question lingers: are we gazing too far at Paris while classrooms at home still struggle to sound out letters one by one? Indonesia’s education challenges extend beyond a lack of foreign languages. The core issue is more fundamental: the population’s reading, comprehension, and reasoning abilities remain lagging. OECD data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows Indonesian students’ reading literacy remains among the world’s lowest. In every PISA cycle, Indonesia’s reading scores have consistently fallen below the OECD average. Out of 81 participating countries and economies, Indonesia scored 359 in reading, 366 in maths, and 383 in science—still below the global average. The irony is bitter: while the country seeks to expand its global horizons through French, millions of children still struggle to comprehend reading materials in their own language. We are like a house aiming for European-style windows while its foundations are cracked. Foreign languages are undoubtedly important. There is nothing wrong with learning French, English, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, or any other language. The world is moving towards global connectivity. Yet education follows a logical sequence: children who cannot read fluently in their mother tongue will struggle to leap into global languages. ‘Bonjour’ is used as the most recognised French greeting, immediately evoking associations with France, modernity, diplomacy, and the international world. It is not merely used as a greeting but as a symbol or metaphor for Indonesia’s global educational ambitions—the desire to appear progressive, cosmopolitan, and connected to the outside world through foreign languages.