On bilingual education

On bilingual education

With regards to Raden Dunbar's letter of response to my
article Bilingual education remains a fantasy for Indonesian
schools, I would like to make a few simple observations.

Clearly Dunbar exists in an exceptional condition. He reports
that "80 percent of his students come from an Indonesian family
background where at least one parent is a native English-speaker
or is fluent with English as a second language". Is it not all
too obvious that this is an highly exceptional condition for
Indonesia? Does Dunbar really think that many schools in
Indonesia enjoy such a high degree of bilingualism? One would
hope not because such a thought truly is in the realms of
fantasy!

The point that I was making in the article was that
bilingualism is a difficult goal to attain and for many it may
not be realistic to make the attempt as it may only confuse and
so hinder rather than help education. I think it is reasonable to
conclude that Dunbar is fortunate to work with a Yayasan and
school council that is bilingual but there are not many schools
in Indonesia that can claim such conditions. My intention in the
original article was merely to warn of the unnecessary
difficulties that may be caused to students if bilingualism is
not carefully and capably targeted.

I congratulate Dunbar and his Yayasan and school council on
their bilingual educational efforts, and I hope that he and
they recognize that I am not intending to negatively criticize
but rather positively promote realism and professionalism
throughout Indonesia's educational development.

DR. SIMON MARCUS GOWER

Tangerang, Banten