Teachers to make Sundanese fun

BOGOR: In preparation for implementing the merit-based national education system in July, about 100 Sundanese language teachers of local middle schools are attending a course on how to make learning the indigenous language more fun.

Although the town is a melting pot of various Indonesian cultures, Sundanese is a compulsory subject in West Java schools.

Sambas Bratasonjaya, assistant for social and economy affairs, read a statement from Bogor Mayor Diani Budiarto that the teachers were responsible for preserving the language by raising the students' interest in learning it.

The merit-based education system was launched in 2002 to correct the previous one-way teaching method, in which a teacher needed no particular expertise in the subject taught. Education experts deemed the new system would help improve the quality of national education.

Separately, Bogor Education Agency head Janny Permadhy said the municipality would retain the Sundanese language as a compulsory subject "because it is one of the local characteristics". -- JP