Ezequiel Freitas – Member of National Parliament (MP) Paulino Monteiro said the use of Indonesian to teach, which is particularly prevalent in private higher education institutions, disadvantages students.

MP Monteiro said language was a huge obstacle to the teaching and learning process. Often students receive their primary education in Portuguese but are instructed only in Indonesian when they enter private higher education.

"We have written our official languages into the constitution but then use Indonesian to teach our students. It becomes a big hindrance, especially when they do their final thesis," MP Monteiro said at the National Parliament. The Democratic Party MP called onto the Ministry of Education (ME) to look into the issue.

MP Antonio Serpa Dadonus said primary and secondary students learn in Portuguese but are then forced to learn in Indonesian at university, which results in them receiving poor marks. "They can forget the Portuguese language and often get poor marks because they don't understand Indonesian," he said.

In response to the issue, the Minister of Education Bendito Freitas said his ministry planned to facilitate Portuguese language training for lecturers at private higher education institutions. "The ministry allocates the budget to facilitate training of Portuguese language to the lecturers in the private schools," he said.

Minister Freitas said it was necessary for the ministry to supervise the institutions as money from the state budget had been paid to the universities.

Source: http://thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/12132-mp-use-of-indonesian-in-schools-disadvantages-students