goodmorningpapua.com – A Regent of Jayawijaya, Papua, Jhon Richard Banua ordered the local education office to include local language lessons in teaching and learning activities at schools. “I have ordered the education office to start this new school year implementing local language learning which is included in the school curriculum,” he said in Wamena, Jayawijaya, Papua, Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
Jhon said learning the Papuan local language was not included in high school level schools, but at the elementary and junior high school levels. “Schools to implement are the responsibility of the local government, namely elementary and junior high schools,” he said.
John said the plan had been prepared two years ago. He said that the learning of the Papuan local language should be carried out within this year. This, he said, was done so that future generations would still know and know the Papuan language.
He assesses the importance of learning regional languages because according to him, the mother tongue is starting to disappear, which has characteristic and cultural values.
Jhon said that learning the Papuan regional language was an effort by the Jayawijaya Government to preserve culture and it needed community support so that it could be implemented properly. The former Deputy Regent of Jayawijaya for two terms admitted that a number of children in the suburbs of the city center understood the regional language but not those in the city center.
“If you look at it, children who grow up in urban areas may not really understand the local language,” said Jhon.