English in grade school

English in grade school

From Kompas

I am perplexed and saddened by the English taught in grade
school. I am a university student and have a cousin in grade five
of an elementary school in Pondok Labu. She has been taught
English since grade three.

One day she asked me to help her because she was facing an
end-of-semester test the following day. I was taken aback seeing
the material which included many tenses: present, past, present
perfect, future, etc. The problem occurred with the present
perfect tense. She could not distinguish between the present and
the present perfect tense.

Even more dumbfounding was that the book contained only five
pages for each tense, including the exercises.

How could she learn the grammar of a foreign language if the
material is wanting both in quality and in quantity?

NIRMA MARINA LESTARI

Jakarta