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National scene: Govt to omit English from primary school
Jakarta: As part of a curriculum overhaul that will come into effect next year, English will no longer be a subject taught in elementary schools, says Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim
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strong>Jakarta: As part of a curriculum overhaul that will come into effect next year, English will no longer be a subject taught in elementary schools, says Deputy Education and Culture Minister Musliar Kaslim.
He said that the omission aimed to give ample time for students to master the Indonesian language first before diving into foreign languages.
“Elementary schools won’t have English lessons because [students] haven’t even learned to understand the Indonesian language yet,” Musliar said on Wednesday. “Now, even some kindergarten students take English courses. That’s haram [prohibited by Islamic law]. I pity the kids.”
He stressed that all schools had to implement the change in their curriculum. The ministry, however, is still mulling whether private schools will be allowed to teach English to their students as a secondary subject or not, according to him.
“But for public schools, it’s definitely forbidden,” Musliar said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.
