Prabowo Wants Foreign Languages Taught from Primary School, PGRI Raises Concerns

President Prabowo Subianto wants eight foreign languages to be taught to children from the first year of primary school. The chairwoman of the PGRI executive board, Unifah Rosyidi, has spoken about the challenges of implementing the programme.

“As part of the development of the times, it is certainly permissible, but preparing eight foreign languages is not as easy as turning the palm of your hand. The curriculum must be prepared, and the teachers must be prepared,” Unifah said when contacted on Monday (17/8/2026).

Unifah asked the government to focus solely on teaching Indonesian and English. She stressed once again that teaching eight foreign languages is no simple matter.

“For now, let us focus on Indonesian as the language of unity and on English. Hopes for the future are fine, but it is not as easy as people think,” she said.

Even so, Unifah acknowledged that language proficiency is indeed important. According to her, only some schools would be able to realise Prabowo’s wish.

“As a response to the importance of language mastery in an era of diverse languages and in the global era, it will indeed be responded to by each school. Schools are different; some can respond quickly, while for schools under the ministry in general it is not easy,” she said.

She stressed that teachers in Indonesia are also not yet ready to teach eight languages. “This means the human resources are not truly ready. At present, the most important things are Indonesian as the language of unity and English as the international language. Those must be implemented first, because of the limited human resources,” she said.

As is known, President Prabowo believes that foreign language skills can make it easier for the younger generation to find work. Prabowo said that foreign language learning would begin to be taught to pupils from the first year of primary school.

“Whatever the subject, we will gather the best teachers, including for foreign languages. Foreign languages are absolutely essential and must be mastered,” Prabowo said during his speech at the 2026 Annual Session of the People’s Consultative Assembly and the Joint Session of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council at the Parliamentary Complex in Senayan, Jakarta, on Friday (14/8).

Prabowo explained that the government would begin foreign language learning from the first year of primary school. The languages to be taught, he said, are those considered the most important and most widely used in various countries.

“We will start foreign languages for our children from primary school. From the first year of primary school, they must begin foreign languages; the most important languages: English, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and French,” Prabowo said.