Schools lack basic study skills

Simon Marcus Gower, Principal, Harapan Bangsa High School, Kotamodern, Tangerang, Banten

Many schools throughout Indonesia have, by now, made quite remarkable efforts to improve the quality of their tuition in the English language and so develop the English skills of students throughout the nation. Likewise, the national curriculum has quite expressly targeted the increase and betterment of English language studies throughout students' lives.

All of this is highly commendable in the context of the need for English -- as the international language. However, there is a definite danger that other aspects of the Indonesian curriculum can seriously undermine these efforts. It has, by now, become a familiar topic of debate amongst educators in Indonesia that thinking skills need to be promoted throughout the nation's education system.

Creative, critical and even just original thought is still something that is not glimpsed sufficiently in Indonesian schools. Passivity and compromise are characteristics that are still too dominant. The ease and willingness with which students will plagiarize and, essentially, resign from the process of thinking for themselves is perhaps one of the most sadly disturbing characteristics of many Indonesian students.

Likewise the weaknesses of so many students in the most basic of academic skills has to be a worry. Clearly illiteracy is not a problem here but the quality and effectiveness of literacy most definitely is. Indonesian school students often may be found to be sadly lacking in basic writing skills. Their ability to organize their thoughts into any kind of coherent and compelling written structure can consistently be found to be close to non- existent.

Just to challenge students to write a well thought out essay or assemble a reasonably logical report can prove to be a major uphill task for teachers, if not indeed a near mountainous task. Similarly basic written word skills seem to be rather neglected in schools.

For example -- it is not at all unusual to see both teachers and students exhibiting an inability to maintain "case consistency" and so words may often appear written such as follows: "She is an exprEssive peRson", and common nouns will be written without capitals -- a sample sentence: "i saw elton john in london". Elementary written mistakes such as this, which are common and so cannot be considered as occasional slips, would in many countries be seen as the mark of an uneducated or at best a poorly educated person.

Why, one might ask, should these kinds of basic mistakes be seen as a specific cause of concern for the teaching and learning of English? Well, naturally enough if a student has difficulties in the first language the ability to perform in a second language will inevitably be undermined. If the foundations of the first language are not strong then the second language is always liable to remain weak.

Also, one has to reflect on the fact that to a large degree language skill equates to thinking skill and so where the most basic of language skills are not fully in place so too will thinking skills be found to be wanting.

This, then, creates genuinely problematic "knock-on" effects for the teacher of English in Indonesia. A consistent concern expressed to English teachers is that the English language is heavy in terms of its grammar. Comparatively, English may be seen as rather more grammatically demanding than Indonesian but often it seems that the "grammar concern" for English is exacerbated and compounded by the manner in which the first language of Indonesian is taught in schools.

Students themselves highlight the dubious way in which Indonesian is presented to them. Some quotes from senior high school students illustrate doubts and concerns: "We don't really learn the language we just do reading", "Why do we have to do this? It's a waste of time and boring", and perhaps most worryingly, "We learn language that nobody uses now. It's useless."

Each of these statements must be cause for concern but taken together these kinds of thoughts suggest that many students doubt the relevance and need for the study of their first language. Where this is happening, clearly there is an element of failure of educators. The suggestion that learning the first language is both "a waste of time" and "useless" is particularly sad because the learning of a first language in schools can present a great opportunity -- an opportunity to learn of literature and language and learn of learning.

Very many students in Indonesia would benefit from just "learning how to learn" -- learning basic academic and study skills. The allocation of time within the curriculum for Bahasa Indonesia is surely an opportunity for this kind of study to occur.

A simple exercise of preparing a formal report and then comparing it with an informal discussion between friends could be hugely beneficial in highlighting differences in language style and register and so present learning of how to use the language appropriately in given circumstances. With more planning and design the school subject of Bahasa Indonesia could become a critical and hugely beneficial contributor across the whole curriculum.

Language skill learnt well can be applied in other subjects -- for example learning to write a report would benefit science subjects where laboratory reports may be required. So too these kinds of skills -- learnt in the first language -- will help the students perform in a second language such as English.

The plan for a new schools curriculum for 2004 appears to be explicitly targeting greater activity and participation from the students and this will heighten the need for students to fully possess basic study and language skills. Student participation and activity instills the need for greater student autonomy and independence of thought and this, in turn, demands that students possess the ability to think and indeed show their thinking.

Currently, however, national tests offer little or no opportunity for students to exercise and show their thinking. The manner in which multiple-choice questions remain the dominant format for student tests maintains students participation and thinking at a passive level.

For students to genuinely grow and develop as thoughtful individuals they need to be first equipped with the basic learning and language skills that form the foundations from which they may build thoughtful participation in both their school life and society generally. In turn, and over time, they may then gather the skills and independence to perform well as original thinkers; not mere followers.

Educators have a duty to equip and challenge students; not stupefy them with excessive curricula and neglect basic skills and leave students dependent and weak in thought.