Few local universities ready to teach in English

By Sugianto Tandra and Johannes Simbolon

JAKARTA (JP): When the Indonesian Business Institute toughened its requirements on English skills for enrollment, more students signed up.

Rudolf Sinaga, head of the institute's research and development department, said this reflected "greater public interest in the kind of education that uses English a lot".

The Indonesia Business Institute (IBI), set up in 1987, is one of the few which welcomes the government's intention to allow the use of English in teaching 50 percent of subjects at local universities.

This is also good news for others like IBI which are making preparations in this direction.

The establishments would produce students not only equipped with master's degrees, but ones with a vital mastery of an international language.

An obvious obstacle will be the poor grasp of English of both lecturers and students.

"Many students still cannot fully grasp lectures in Indonesian, let alone in English," the director general of higher education at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Bambang Soehendro, told The Jakarta Post.

He said only prepared universities could make the best of the intended move to produce more qualified students.

"So, it's up to universities to implement the policy," he said.

Sinaga of IBI said the intended policy was in line with IBI's original mission to produce qualified graduates who had a good command of English and who were thereby ready to compete in the global era.

IBI, which claims it has graduates working at top companies, is not quite ready to use English in lectures, he said. But he pointed out that the institute had created what he called an "English-friendly" atmosphere on campus which could be a good basis for the implementation of the policy in the future.

Textbooks are all in English, except for subjects such as the state ideology Pancasila.

"Unlike other universities, our students get English lessons for three semesters," he said, adding that the institute had four English language laboratories.

A certain degree of English proficiency is one of IBI's entrance requirements for applicants. To qualify for sitting final exams students must have a minimum Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) score of 500.

Candidates for lecturers are also required to have mastered English, Sinaga said, adding that IBI had 100 lecturers, including two professors and three doctorate title holders to teach over 3,000 students.

Routine

The institute also routinely upgrades its lecturers' English proficiency, for which the institute cooperates with the Netherlands' Erasmus University.

Under the program, for instance, IBI lecturers work with visiting lecturers from Erasmus University to prepare research proposals.

IBI students have voiced different opinions regarding the government's intention to introduce the use of English in universities. "A few have urged lecturers to use English, but many prefer bilingual teaching," Sinaga said.

"In a nutshell, we're not yet ready ... but we're happy with the introduction of the policy. And we fully realize that English is a necessity for our students," he added.

Soenjono Dardjowidjojo, a linguist at Jakarta's Atma Jaya Catholic University, one of the top private universities in town, was pessimistic about the plan.

"I believe most, if not all, universities in Indonesia are not yet ready to use English in teaching. I don't know when they will be," said Soenjono.

Soenjono said Atma Jaya had no foreseeable plans to teach subjects in English, but was still busy with improving the English skills of its lecturers.

For this purpose, it is working with Australia's Griffith University, Belgium's Lueven University and the Philippines' St. Thomas University.

Soenjono said that if Atma Jaya was to implement such a policy he would propose that it set up an experimental class.

"Students have different levels of English skills," he said.

Nevertheless he praised the government's move, which he said would provide students with more opportunities to improve their English.

However, Soenjono said that a better method would be to provide subsidies for those wishing to take English courses.

Soenjono also called for a revamping of the method of teaching English at the country's schools in order to improve students' language skills before they entered university.

"Unless we change our method of teaching English (at high schools), we can't prepare our children for colleges in English," he said.

He proposed that high school English classes have between 15 and 20 students, instead of 40 and 50 students, to make teaching effective.

Melanie Budianta, an English lecturer at the University of Indonesia, said that to her knowledge the university had no immediate plans to teach subjects in English.

If it did, the university would most likely find it had less problems than other universities as many of its lecturers had studied overseas.

"But most entrants are from high schools which do not provide them with enough knowledge of English," she said.

Melanie agreed with Soenjono that English lessons in high schools should be improved.