T

he objective of national education, as stipulated in Chapter 3 of National Education System Law No. 20/2003 is to nurture students'€™ potential to have faith in God, develop good character, live healthy life and to be knowledgeable, creative, self-reliant, responsible and democratic citizens.

Keeping in mind Indonesia is a multilingual country, any change of the curriculum brings issues of multilingualism, multiculturalism and literacy developments into focus.

We are reminded of the five criticisms raised by Fishman (1994) that language planning: (1) is conducted by elites that are governed by their own self-interest, (2) reproduces rather than overcomes socio-cultural and econo-technical inequalities, (3) inhibits or counteracts multiculturalism, (4) espouses world-wide Westernization and modernization leading to new socio-cultural, econo-technical and conceptual colonialism, and (5) only ethnography can save language planning from fostering the above mentioned evils.

Thus, the current language policies and language education would create and sustain various forms of social inequality and promote the interests of dominant social groups. To illustrate the case, we can see the dominance of the Javanese on Indonesian language, which is an irritant for non-Javanese groups (Bertrand, 2003).

Language policies, like education policies, are a mechanism by which the government seeks to influence language behavior. The current language policy promotes Indonesian as the most important medium of instruction, even in the territories where the ethnic language is more appropriate.

In remote areas in Java and islands outside of Java, junior secondary students still have difficulty in communicating in Indonesian. The teachers realize the linguistic deficiencies of students and know that the use of the local language would solve the problem. However, they are helpless to do anything about it.

Language policies adopted by the government could be viewed as serving the interests of the dominant group viewed as '€œthe oppressor'€. The Constitutional Court'€™s decision to revoke the international-standard school pilot project (RSBI), where English was the medium of instruction, was a significant and historical victory for those who have long struggled for a more democratic and egalitarian system of education.

Ethno-cultural groups are impacted by the language policies imposed by the government or dominant institutions. In the 2006 curriculum, the notion of the local content subject in the elementary school curriculum was loosely defined.

Many elementary schools chose English as the local content subject'€”rather than ethnic language or ethnic music and dance. Due to public demand and pressure from parents, elementary schools provide English without necessarily having quality human resources supply the education.

The motto of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or unity in diversity has been a source of national pride and a political commodity to impress the world and to attract foreign tourists and investors. At home, the current language policies are promoting an Indonesian-only policy as the medium of instruction.

The classroom interaction typically de-values the potential of local languages. I would go so far as to say that with regard to local language preservation, the government tends to leave it to the speakers'€™ communities.

While the Indonesian language plays a unifying role in the country as one of the world'€™s most culturally diverse countries, local languages are a remarkable catalog of its culture. Education is a process where students consciously learn about their own culture and other cultures as well.

At the macro level, the spread of English '€œ['€¦] threatens other languages, operates as a gatekeeper to positions of wealth and privilege, and plays a role in the unequal distribution of global economic and cultural resources [...] due to deliberate policies of English-speaking nations to spread the language in order to protect and promote their own interests'€ (Tollefson, 1995).

Major ethno-linguistic minorities have exercised resistance by creating and sustaining alternative language policies. There are more than 700 languages scattered over about 17,000 islands in Indonesia, yet only three ethnic languages '€” Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese are well maintained.

Unless a strategic policy is made, all the other languages will slowly but surely vanish. Mindful of the cultural potential embedded in the mother tongue, its linguistic rights should be emphasized.

Students especially at elementary schools should be given rights to be indigenous in their language education.

The Indonesian language is a nationalist symbol while local languages are cultural symbols. Languages should be used proportionally for cultural and national development, and language education should create a mechanism of empowerment.

Unfortunately, the current system of education has failed to empower students through the Indonesian language, let alone local languages. At university level, early exposure to English textbooks and a lack of writing skills among intellectuals have developed the erroneous belief that English is the only language for science and technology, and that Indonesian does not great potential in this regard.

Creativity for language educators is an ability to produce, reproduce and create new knowledge through a different language. Language education should provide students with the ability to write in ethnic, national and foreign languages.

A number of international studies on literacy such as the progress in international reading literacy study (PIRLS), and program for international students assessment (PISA) have shown that literacy rate of Indonesian students is comparatively low. This is telling evidence that language education and language policy '€” despite continuous and forceful top-down mechanisms '€”has failed to develop competitive literacy even among intellectuals.

Critical educators would expect language education to a create climate in which it is possible to think, talk and write a language of hope and transformation for those struggling in the present for a better future (Giroux, 1989).

As a matter of fact, long before political independence in 1945, the Youth Pledge as a declaration of linguistic independence in 1928 stated among others the youth'€™s belief and commitment to Indonesia as the only country, Indonesian as the national language, and local language as a support language.

Since independence, the government'€™s attitude toward local languages has been indifferent, leaving them to the community where the local language originates. Creativity is individual and culturally sensitive. Students are more sensitive to their own culture compared with other cultures.

Pedagogical practice should respect the mother tongue that students bring to the classroom, while at the same time they are offered Indonesian or English as new linguistic resources.

Language pedagogues need to recognize students'€™ language heritage and practice as cultural and psychological capital for learning a new language, which in turn functions for developing maximum literacy.

The writer is a professor of language education at the Indonesian University of Education (UPI), Bandung.