Abolition of English Lesson in Elementary School
English is an
international language and also becomes an important skill that we need to
master it in this time. Therefore, English is one of the important lessons in
education institution. In formerly, English has taught since Elementary School.
Even children who are in some playgroups have already studied about the basic
of English. However, nowadays, according to curriculum 2013, English is
abolished in elementary school. However, this case has some impacts for the
education range; positive sides and also negative sides.
The first positive
sides of abolishing English lesson in elementary school is students who are in
elementary school do not have too many lessons in their school. They are able
to be more focus on their other lessons, especially in Indonesian language
lesson which is the national language. They can improve their knowledge in
Indonesian language. A sociolinguistic expert, Kunjana Rahardi said that
teaching a foreign language for the children in early is not good. He thinks
that they should master in Indonesian language first before they studied the
foreign language. Therefore, it is able to increase the nationalism in the
Indonesian children. Indirectly, student who already mastered in Indonesian
language will be able have more nationalism. It is because they have more
knowledge about Indonesia and apply the custom of Indonesia in their daily
activity. Furthermore, that will be able to appear the feeling to love the
country and defend the prestige of the Indonesia itself.
It is not only
about the nationalism, but also about the character of the student itself. It
is going to be better if a student is given a character education to build a
good character in student. It is not useful if the elementary school’s students
mastered in English and know it well, but they do not have a good character.
Setting up the good character is more important than English.
Supervisor of
education, Prof. Haris Anwar Syafruddie had a notion that studying English in
elementary school is not effective. He thinks that students in elementary
school should not study the foreign language like English because it is just
useless if teaching English in one hour without practicing in their daily
activity. Without English lesson, students will have much time to study about
reading, writing, and arithmetic as the prior subject in elementary school. In
other side, according to Arief Rahman as education expert said that not all of
region in Indonesia needs English lesson. He thinks that English is only needed
in big cities and the region which is located near the division. For the
example, English is an important lesson for the children who live in the
division region, like in suburb of Kalimantan where abut on Malaysia. They need
English skill to communicate with the Indonesian, and also with the Malaysian.
While there are
some statements about the advantages of abolishing English lesson in elementary
school, there are also some disadvantages from it. Actually, teaching the
foreign language, especially English, have to be taught since children are in
early. Children have the stronger memory to memorize everything. It means that
it is the best time to teach English in elementary school. They are able to
memorize and will understand more about English since they were in 6 years old.
They also will be well in English because they have already studied it for 12
years. According to research of Brain Imaging Technology, in University of
California, Los Angeles, knowledge process, creativity, and divergent thinking
in children who are in 6 until 12 years old is in very optimal condition, in
addition, in biologically, this time is the appropriate time to teach foreign
language.
In long time, this
decision is able to influence the education quality. Graduate of elementary
school will not have skill in English. So, they have to start to study English
from the basic in Junior High School. Absolutely, it is not easy to do. Novi as the English teacher in elementary
school said that if English is taught since elementary school, so that it will
be easier to apply it in next education institution. Without studied English in
elementary school, young generation will not have good skill in English, such
as in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. It means that quality of
education is taking down. They cannot compete with student from abroad. Imagine
if there is an exchange student program, and student from Indonesia cannot
speak English well because in fact, they do not study English effectively.
If English just be
an extracurricular, it will not be effective. It means English just be taught
for the children who are interested in it. How about children who are not
interested in English? They will never know about English. If English be a duty
lesson, children who like English or not have to study and pay attention in
English. So, children who do not like to study English will also know about it.
Perhaps, in the beginning, they felt do not like, but they have to studied it
as the lesson in the school. Finally, they are going to like English and know
more about it. Besides, if English is an extracurricular, it means, student
have to pay for the cost of the extracurricular class and also they have
schedule after school. They cannot concentrate to study English as an
extracurricular because they are already tired of study in the school time.
To sum up, the
abolishing of English lesson has some impacts which influence the education. We
know that English is a skill which we really need in this modern era. Teaching
English in elementary school is very important. Therefore, it will be better if
English is not abolished in elementary school because by teaching English in
elementary school, that is able to help in increasing and developing
Indonesia’s education.
