Bilingual education too hard for teachers

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 06/09/2009 1:06 PM  |  Jakarta

Teachers in Jakarta may not be able to institute a new government policy requiring every province in the nation to have at least one international-standard school in which English is the language of instruction in at least two subjects.

"Some teachers struggle with teaching English in English, let alone teaching other subjects in the language," British Council educational advisor Itje Chodidjah said on the sidelines of a symposium on bilingual education attended by representatives of 10 countries.

In 2006, the government introduced the English Bilingual Education (EBE) program, designating 112 schools for its English-medium Stream pilot project.

"The need to master English is becoming more pressing," Director General for Primary and Secondary Education Suryanto said at the event.

However, the capability of teachers, even in the capital city, may be inadequate to keep up with the bilingual challenge.

"In Jakarta, some schools recruit teachers for the EBE programs because they speak decent English, but they have not necessarily mastered the language," Itje said, adding that in some schools the case was the opposite: teachers speak fluent English but lack the required teaching skills.  

It usually takes seven months of training to help the teachers master their subjects in English, Itje said. (dis)

 

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