Vernacular education

“You have to go to school in French. If you learn in Mandika or Peul, you’re not educated,” said a father from a village in Senegal during Victoria Baker survey in 1989. Although many studies across the world present advantages for children educated in native/mother tongue, the resistance is often coming from the very people who may benefit from the intervention (Baker, Victoria, 1996). This raises the question if the Indonesian government who govern more than 700 active spoken languages (UNESCO, 2005) need to allow schools teaching their students in the language that children consider as their mother tongue. The author of the essay will elaborate his stance why he proposes to apply vernacular education approach for primary schools in Indonesia.

It could be argued that the Indonesian government should allow teaching-learning processes in the classroom held in the local languages, in particular for primary school students. First of all, this is because second language acquisition largely starts to develop after the first 6 to 8 years of their studies (Magga, Ole Henrik et.al, 2004). This logic leads to the need of delivering learning processes in the language that is considered as the students’ first language, so that learning expected outputs will be ensured. Both students and teachers comprehend larger lexical resources in their first languages to ease key subject terminologies introduction. However, Victoria Backer (1996) argued that language usage will not sustain when its use is limited in modern economy. She claimed that no single model of vernacular education is proven sustainable, including in learning, when they are not used in daily economic activities. Thus teachers and parents are reluctant to agree on it. Counter objection is claimed by Ole Henrik Magga et. al (2004). They emphasize that language is not only meant as media of interaction but also method to convey values and knowledge contained in it. Therefore, learning in vernacular approach is not only teaching students to tune in with the learning but also to understand the essence of the learning itself.

Second support of the preposition maintains that vernacular education approach is proven to give greater academic achievement results. Deep and large studies across the continents have been conducted for many years. Including those conducted by Skutnabb-Kangas (1987) on minority immigrant worker group of Femmish in Sweden, Saikia and Mohanty (2004) on minority Bodo tribe in Assam, India, and Thomas and Collier (2002) on minority tribes and races across USA. All lead to the conclusion that all students from such groups are proven to achieve greater academic results compared to their fellows whom are taught in non native languages. The academic output is particularly astonishing on Math and Literature. It has been argued elsewhere that, however, teacher training efforts are more determinants to quality education than vernacular language medium. The two issues are however cross cutting in themselves so that the logic of vernacular education contribution on academic achievements is undeniable.

In addition to the previous two major preposition reasons, Ari Lestyorini (2008) emphasizes that Indonesian constitution year 1945, article 32, is legally guaranteeing the importance of preserving local language(s). Legal basis on the efforts is another mandatory obligation on why the government must allow vernacular education approach. Indonesia is among countries that ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989) that mandated the governing countries to uphold the right of children from indigenous and minorities on attaining education in the language that their mothers speak. This is deemed important by law, as it is leading towards end of poverty actions.

“What is the most critical (and cost effective) input to change the conditions of poverty, or rather to expand human capabilities?” “There is a ‘general consensus’ among the economists, psychologists and other social scientists that education is perhaps the most crucial input” (Misra & Mohanty, 2000).

However, budget allocation to implement the efforts is enormous, claimed Backer (1996). In the case of the government of Papua New Guinea for example, although have been passing the law to endorse teaching in vernacular language, myriad of resources development must be funded and therefore is expensive. Yet, I believe the importance of preserving the values within the language exceeds the budget. Therefore, vernacular education will need to implement.


Bibliography
Backer, Victoria. 1996. Native Language versus National Language Literacy: Choices and Dilemmas in School Instruction Medium. Eckerd College. Florida, USA

Lestiyorini, Ari. 2008. Eksistensi bahasa daerah dan bahasa Indonesia sebagai alat komunikasi dalam persaingan global. Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta


Magga, Ole Hendrik. Ida Nicolaisen, Mililani Trask, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and Robert Dunbar. Indigenous children’s education and indigenous languages. Expert paper written for the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.