Teaching non-English subjects in English a distant dream

JAKARTA (JP): The government's policy to allow high schools to teach subjects like mathematics and physics in English seems a distant dream for most high schools.

Good English teachers who are able to teach in English are hard to find, especially in the provinces.

It is no secret that high school graduates in general speak poor English and they need to take English courses to improve their skills.

Even top high schools in major cities like Jakarta, which have the resources to teach their students non-English subjects in English, are reluctant to do so.

Only a few elite schools, which aim to create English-speaking Indonesian students and have recruited many foreign teachers for that purpose, find no problem with the policy.

The following are comments of several high schools which were interviewed regarding this new policy.

Arifin Rusmana, principal of State Senior High School (SMIN) I, Jl. Boedi Oetomo, Central Jakarta:

Mathematics and physics need deep comprehension and teaching both subjects in English would make it difficult for students to understand the lessons.

Our students, coming from various income groups, have different levels of English knowledge.

Rich students can go to English courses to improve their English language skills from a young age. They would have reached a high level of English by the time they get to high school and might be ready for lessons in English.

But many students who come from poor families only learn English at school, due to a lack of money to pay the fees for an English course.

So, why should we force ourselves to teach in English when our students could not fully understand?

For the moment, we prioritize improving our students' English skills. We are renovating our language laboratory for that purpose. When the renovation is done, we will run extracurricular English courses for free.

Hen Sugirdjo, vice principal of the Catholic girls' high school Tarakanita I, Jl. Pulo Raya IV, South Jakarta:

As a matter of fact, we would probably not face many difficulties to teach non-English subjects in English because most of our students are familiar with the language.

They mostly come from middle- to upper-income and educated families. From childhood, many of them speak English at home, learn English at noted courses, or get private English lessons at home.

Many of them have traveled overseas extensively and have had direct contact with English-speaking communities.

As such, they have enough proficiency in English when they get to high school.

But, as yet, we have no plans to teach non-English subjects in English.

I don't think it is necessary to teach in English if we can use Indonesian to make them understand.

We might teach many lessons in English in the future.

K.H. Machrus Amien, founder and one of the principals of the Darunadjah Islamic boarding school, Jl. Ulujami Raya, South Jakarta, which has about 2,000 students studying in the junior and senior high schools.

For the moment, we don't think it is necessary to teach mathematics and physics or any other subject in English because the national examination is done in Indonesian.

We don't think the policy is feasible for now.

Anyway, we do think English is very important. English is the source of knowledge and the key to developing ties with the international world.

In our school, we have a program of learning to teach in either English or Arabic. The purpose is to make students able to teach Islam to people in both languages.

So far, the number of students opting to teach Islam in English is 30 percent higher than those wanting to teach it in Arabic.

Andy Mountain, curriculum coordinator of Global Jaya Junior High School in Bintaro Jaya, Tangerang.

For us, teaching non-English subjects in English is not new because we have been applying the system since its establishment in 1995.

About 40 percent of subjects are currently taught in English.

Junior high school students are taught mathematics, science (physics and biology), arts and humanities (geography and history) in English.

Math is taught six times a week; three times in English and three times in Indonesian.

If the subjects are given in English by an expatriate teacher, an Indonesian teacher is present during the class as translator should there be any difficulties.

Science classes are bilingual. Practical lessons are conducted in Indonesian but theory is explained in English to make students acquainted with international scientific terms. (gis/02)