Response to President's Directive for Schools to Teach French: P2G Calls it 'Merely Diplomatic Lip Service'

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – The Teachers and Education Association (P2G) is puzzled by President Prabowo’s directive for schools to teach French. P2G is surprised by the sudden nature of the instruction. ‘Out of the blue, President Prabowo has ordered all schools to teach French to students,’ said P2G National Coordinator Satriwan Salim on Monday (1 June 2026). P2G views the presidential directive as unclear, unplanned, and hasty, lacking thorough preparation and not a priority need. The group suspects it is merely diplomatic lip service to France. Satriwan fears that if Prabowo holds another bilateral meeting with Japan, Japanese language might be added to the curriculum. He suspects similar actions could occur during visits to China and the Netherlands. ‘The president’s directive last year to teach Portuguese has yet to be implemented, and now French is being added,’ Satriwan said. Satriwan reminded that including French and Portuguese in the curriculum is not a priority under the National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) 2025-2029, as per Presidential Regulation No. 12 of 2025. ‘The government cannot implement education policies that deviate from the established RPJMN,’ Satriwan added. Satriwan also noted that mandating French lessons across all school levels would add to students’ curriculum burden, especially as Indonesia faces a shortage of 374,000 civil servant teachers in public schools. ‘Introducing Portuguese and French from primary to secondary school levels would exacerbate the national teacher shortage,’ Satriwan said. Assuming two foreign language teachers per school for around 240,000 primary to secondary schools, the government would need 480,000 additional foreign language teachers. ‘The government cannot meet this demand, especially as it has not recruited civil servant teachers for six years. Consequently, there would be no professional teachers to deliver these subjects,’ Satriwan concluded.