There was a small gaiety at the last day of the English Bilingual Education (EBE) Symposium that took place last week at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Jakarta. Three walls of the seminar room were full of pieces of paper as large as film posters. Was it a “wall magazine” competition? It looked like one, but it was not exactly that. What was presented there were actually the important points regarding bilingual education and the teaching of other subjects in English and suggestions for improvements that the participants have summarised.

During the three day seminar, 9 – 11 June, 2009, the participants, coming from Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam, shared their experience. There were common problems occurring in all the countries—the most prominent being the ability of teachers to teach content subjects in English—and there were also specific ones. The solutions put forward in this seminar were therefore varied, in line with whether or not the issue was relevant to respective countries.

An Indonesian representative in the seminar, for example, suggested that a further symposium was necessary, to discuss specifically about the issue of bilingual education in Indonesia. The symposium should involve all the stakeholders, such as the government, teachers, parents, and other observers who could provide independent and objective suggestions. There should also be a qualitative research involving students. It is hoped that such efforts will bring about a more comprehensive map pertaining to bilingual education in Indonesia, thus resulting in more realistic demands. “In principle, we don’t take this step to annul the R-SBI (Rintisan Sekolah Bertaraf Internasional, or Pilot International-Standard Schools) programme, but rather to develop it further,” said Dr. Faturrahman from the Junior-High School Directorate of the Indonesian Ministry of Education. The suggestions proposed by the Indonesian representative, as well as by representatives from other countries, did not constitute final solutions to the problems at hand but potential ways to support the issues.

However, “We now have real perspectives to help us take the next steps,” said Christian Duncumb, Director English and Education Reform, British Council Indonesia. This perspective is important, considering that bilingual education is a complicated issue that one cannot simply dismiss as good or bad. “There are examples of success stories, as well as failures. Therefore, British Council is not in the position to say it is either a good thing or a bad thing,” explained Duncumb. He put an emphasis on this issue because British Council’s main mission is to improve the quality of English learning through whatever mechanisms are most appropriate to educational contexts.

One of the speakers in the seminar, Professor Emeritus Richard Johnstone, the former Director of Scottish CILT (Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research), University of Stirling, stated that on the ideal level, bilingual education is more rewarding for the students. What he meant by ideal is that the teachers involved are proficient in both languages and master the teaching materials. Johnstone mentioned the children in Scotland whose mother tongue are English and who follow bilingual education with Gaelic as the second language. In the beginning, the students on this bilingual program were far surpassed by their friends who were educated solely in English. As time went by, however, the bilingual students became more adept in maths, science, and English. “As the cognitive ability of the child develops, she also thinks more efficiently,” explained Johnstone. Another important thing that Johnstone mentioned aside from the teacher’s mastery was the active role of the parents. Parents’ group should, therefore, be set up, considering the different capabilities among parents. With such groups, fellow parents can help one another.

Johnstone said that the formula for bilingual education is not as complicated as many people imagine. The formula, however, must be carefully applied and adapted according to the local conditions. The problem is, according to Johnstone, people want to see instant results, while bilingual education requires time, and in some countries it needs more than ten years. “The key is patience and understanding,” said Johnstone.

See also our previous article