Secondary English Education in
Indonesian Context
By
Didi Sukyadi
Indonesia University of Education
ASIA TEFL Conference
Seoul, 27-29 July 2011
Purpose of The Talk
• Provide a short overview of what happens at
Secondary English Education in Indonesia
• Focus of the talk: Indonesian secondary school
system, position and role of English in Indonesian
education system, curriculum changes, the
adoption of Genre Based Approach, School-Based
Curriculum Development, English as a medium of
instruction, teacher’ quality improvement, and
each related issues.
Indonesian Secondary Schools
1) Under MoNE Coordination
• Junior Secondary Schools (3 Years)
• Senior Secondary Schools (3 Years)
• Vocational Secondary Schools (3Years)
2) Under MoRA Coordination
• MTs (Madrasah Tsanawiyah or Islamic Junior
Secondary Schools)-3 Years
• MA (Madrasah Aliyah or Islamic Senior Secondary
Schools) – 3 Years
English Teaching Hours
• Junior Secondary: 4 x 40 minutes a week.
• Vocational Secondary: 4 x 45 minutes
• Year 1 and 2 Senior Secondary 4 x 45 minutes
a week
• Year 3 Senior Secondary: science and social
science streams: 4 x 45 minutes a week.
• Year 3 language stream: 5 x 45 minutes a
week.
Place of English in Indonesian
Education System
• 1955: “the first foreign language” in Indonesia
• 1989 National Education Law: first foreign
language, compulsory subjects to be taught at
the secondary level, but can be taught from
Primary Four.
• Can be be used as a medium of instruction in an
institution where English is taught as a discipline.
• The purpose of teaching English is mainly to
develop reading ability as a means of helping
students to gain access to information, and to
read references.
• The order of priority: reading, listening, speaking
and writing
The Role of English in Indonesia
• A main requirement for the success of
individuals, the society and the nation of
Indonesia in answering the challenges of the time
in the global level.
• A means to accelerate the developments of the
Indonesian nation and country
• However, it is also seen as a threat to national
identities and nationalism. Many criticisms on the
road signs, advertsements, names of real estates
in English.
• Lauder (2008) sees the case as language
schizophrenia.
Curriculum Change
• 1954, Old Style Curriculum , 4 teaching hour a week.
• 1962, A New Style Curriculum; the learning materials
were based on audiolingual approach.
• 1968, Perfected New Style Curriculum, audio lingual
method.
• The 1975 curriculum, audio-lingual method with the
teaching materials similar to those in 1968 curriculum
• The 1984 curriculum: students’ active learning and
meaningful communication, CLT
• The 1994 Curriculum: CLT, organized thematically.
• The 2004 Curriculum: Competence-Based Curriculum
with Genre-Based Approach.
• Developed completely by central government
Curriculum Change
• 2004 Curriculum: basic competence, standard competence,
indicators, learning materials, conversational gambits,
vocabulary, etc.
• Causes pros and cons: too linguistics
• In 2006, Board of National Education Standards (BSNP) cut
down most of the components of 2004 Curriculum.
• Consisting of Basic competence and competence standard
only. Some call it as 2006 Curriculum.
• Other components such as syllabus are developed by each
school (School Based Curriculum Development)
• Adopting Genre-Based Approach
• Using four cycles of teaching: Building knowledge of text,
modeling of text, join construction of text, independent
construction of texts
Skills Developed in 2006 Curriculum
(Senior Secondary)
• Reading: certain information, detail information,
explicit and implicit information, reference, word
meaning, purpose of communication, main idea,
synonyms and antonyms
• Text type: announcement,
advertisement/brochure, news item, recount,
explanation, exposition, discussion and review
• Writing: Cloze test, arranging words into
sentences, and sentences into paragraphs
Skills developed in 2006 Curriculum
(Junior Secondary)
• Reading:
• General information, Main idea, Explicit detail
information, Implied information, Reference, Meaning
of words, phrase and sentences
- Text types: Short Functional Texts: Caution,
Greeting card, Short message, Invitation,
Announcement, Label, Advertisement, and Letter
- Writing:
• appropriate words to complete short report texts.
• appropriate word arrangement to to make sentences
• appropriate sentence arrangement to make paragraphs
Issues of the Implementation of
Genre Based Approach
• Difficulties in understanding the definition of
monologue and essays.
• No distictive features distinguishing the coverage
of the same genre in different semesters.
• Difficulties in comprehending standard
competence and basic competence well.
• Difficulties in integrating four language skills so
they still teach language skills in a discrete way.
• Difficulties in understanding terminologies in text
types such as transactional, functional,
ideational, interpersonal, descriptive, report, etc.
Issues in the Implementation of GBA
• knowing the students’ literacy level required by the
curriculum.
• utilizing grammar to support the acquisition of
communicative competence.
• controlling the amount of reading aloud during
modeling of text
• understanding the importance of developing strategic
competence to acquire natural communicative
competence.
• understanding the principles of literacy (e.g.
Scaffolding)
• using grammar to teach other than linguistic
competence
• sequencing the four cycles (BKOF, MOT, JOCOT, ICOT
Issues in the Implementation of GBA
• Teachers tend to focus on the number texts to finish,
not on how to guide the students to be able to
construct texts. Some cover 7-9 texts in a semester.
• Most teachers base their text selection on text
illustration, not on their relevance with the learning
objectives.
• Teachers believe that the four learning stages are linier;
one stage should be followed by another
• Most of the respondents use their time in the class to
explore generic structure, vocabulary, and grammar of
the texts, not to explore and construct the texts
School Based Curriculum
Development (KTSP)
• Developed and implemented by each education
unit including:
1) Objectives of each education unit, structure and
content of the curriculum (subject matters, local
content, learning load, mastery learning,
movement to higher class and graduation,
streaming, life skills, competitiveness-based
education, academic calender and syllabus)
2) Syllabus: competence standard, basic
competence (central government)
learning materials, learning activities, learning
objectives, asssessment, time allotment and
learning resources (by each school)
Inssues in the Implementation of
SCBD
• School-based curriculum is considered to be
developed by central goverment and local
education authority not by each school.
• Teachers believe that they should develop
competence standard and basic competence for
their syllabus, while in fact the two have been
developed by central government
• Teachers do not have sufficient skills in
developing syllabus.
• Teachers have difficulty in is choosing
methodology and teaching techniques
International Standard Schools
Since 2006
a) Adopting curricula used in OECD countries.
b) Using English as a medium of instruction for science subjects
c) Emphasizing the balance in the development of all learning
domains (cognitive, affective, and pychomotoric domains)
d. Developing integrated curricula in terms of learning materials,
competencies, values, attitudes, and behaviors.
e. Nurturing students to be able to think critically, creatively, and
analytically, and have the ability to make a decision in learning.
f. Encouraging the schools to have apprenticeship programs in
relevant fields
g. Emphasizing the ability to take advantage of information
technology.
h. The best school in the district
h. Until 2009: We have 299 Junior Secondary, 321 Senior Secondary,
and 295 Vocational Schools with the international standards
label.
Issues in Using English as of Medium of
Instruction in International Standard Schools
• Causing pros and cons
• Become a burden for all: English teachers, science teachers,
and parents
• Lack of competent teachers: especially science teachers.
• Demand teachers to work harder and spend more time for
teaching and for administrative works.
• Decrease the teaching spirit of teachers, students’ learning
achievement, and students’ learning motivation,
• Has made the teachers to get stressed and lazy to work,
and consider English as a frightening demon.
• Has made the students difficult to understand the learning
contents.
• Finally in 2011, the government has stated that there was
no policy of obligating IS schools to use English.
• The idea of IS Schools keeps going.
Teachers’ Quality Improvement
• Per 2009: 2.9 million teachers, in which 886.230
of them have academic qualification lower than
BA certificates.
• We also face a problem of under supply and over
supply among urban, rural and remote areas.
• High rate of absenteeism among teachers as they
have to do other jobs to improve their income
• All situations above also apply to English
teachers.
Teachers’ Quality Improvement
• Management improvement program: 1) qualifications
upgrading, 2) professional certification, 3) quality
assurance, 3) on-going professional development, 4)
mapping deployment and recruitment requirements,
and 5) improving the teachers’ welfare.
• Qualification upgrading requires all secondary teachers
to have at least bachelor degree certificates through
distance learning, dual modes, and regular classes in
tertiary institutions.
• Professional certification is administered by obligating
teachers teaching in all secondary schools to have
professional educator certificates, which can be
acquired whether through portfolio assessment or inservice Teacher Training.
Teachers’ Network (MGMP)
• To improve teachers’ quality, the government endorse
the establishment of MGMP (Teacher Network)
• This networks organize regular meetings to discuss and
share new skills, knowledge and information, either
from master teachers, school supervisors, teachers, or
from other resource persons.
• Carry out workshops, seminars, or focus group
discussions
• Become a focal point when other institutions like
universities or professional organizations want to
communicate with secondary teachers.
• Participate in lesson study implementation sponsored
by university and local government.
Thank You
Terima Kasih