Dutch school opens for Its doors
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Although the school uses Dutch as a language of instruction, Lisa, 11, a sixth-year student of the Netherlands International School (NIS) in Jeruk Purut, South Jakarta, talked in fluent English about her school.
"I joined the school two years ago after my parents moved to Indonesia. This is a great school, and I like it very much. Here, I can learn English as well," she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
She said that she enjoyed learning English, and hoped she could practice the language more.
Lisa's hope will soon be fulfilled because NIS, which was established in the late 1960s has decided to adopt International Primary Curriculum (IPC) which enables the school to carry most of its lessons in English while maintaining Dutch and other languages as a medium of instruction for certain subjects.
School board member Karen Peters said that they would begin the new curriculum for preschool students in January before applying it to the primary students later in August.
"We will welcome children of any nationality, including Indonesians, to enroll in the school. With the new curriculum, children of other nationalities, such as German, French, or Indonesian, could learn reading, writing, and maths in their own language and at the same time study other subjects in English," she told the Post.
The preschool has began accepting students from one-and-a-half years old to four years old from other nationalities since the beginning of the month.
Peters said that students who studied under the new curriculum would have a school certificate that is recognized internationally after they graduated, and could continue their studies anywhere in the world.
As the oldest international school in the country, NIS currently has 120 students, comprising of 40 preschool students and 80 primary school students.
"After over 30 years of only accepting children from Dutch or families where one of the parents is Dutch, we have decided to open our school to the wider community by using English as our medium of instruction. We do this because we want to reach out to more students," NIS principal Th. J. M. Gunneweg said.
He added that many Dutch citizens here need English proficiency as they often do not go back to the Netherlands but continue working in other countries, most of the time English- speaking countries.
Mrs. Bosch, who was waiting to pick up her children, welcomed the school's plan to introduce a new curriculum saying that the use of English as the medium of instruction in school would surely attract more students, and provide language skills for the children.
"This is a very good school with very good facilities and very good curriculum. I have two children here, and, of course, I want them to master English for their future," she said.