J. de Jong was a Dutch educational administrator who, in 1946, contributed the chapter Het onderwijs aan de inheemsche bevolking (“Education of the Indigenous Population”) to the volume Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk edited by Dr. Wormser (pp. 137–155). His chapter surveys the schools established for the indigenous population of the Dutch East Indies — the Volksschool (three-year village school), Vervolgschool (continuation school), Inlandsche Mulo (indigenous junior secondary school), and Kleinhandelsschool (small-traders’ school) — and gives Atjeh a specific place in the history of language-of-instruction policy.
Treatment of Atjeh
De Jong’s chapter records that, in the late-colonial educational system, the question of which language should serve as the medium of instruction in the village schools was a live one: “Malay is still used as the language of instruction in many regions where the landstaal (regional language) has not yet been made the medium of instruction. Minangkabau and Atjeh have only recently had the landstaal introduced in the schools; Gorontalo and Paloe were in preparation in 1940, but in various parts of Celebes, the Moluccas and the Lesser Sunda Islands, Malay is still in use.” The introduction of Atjehnese (and Minangkabau) as a medium of instruction in the village schools is therefore presented as a recent reform at the time of writing, dated to shortly before the Japanese occupation.
De Jong further notes that, even where the landstaal has been adopted as the medium of instruction, Malay remains a compulsory subject: “Thus in Atjeh and Minangkabau, for example, in the first, second and third classes of the Volksschool, 25%, 50% and 75% respectively of the number of lesson hours set aside for language teaching is devoted to Malay.” The rationale is twofold: the school-leaver’s need to communicate with neighbours and strangers, and the need for officials of the Binnenlandsch Bestuur (Interior Administration) and the Inspectorate to maintain contact with the population.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, De Jong’s chief significance is the documentation of the Atjehnese language’s relatively late arrival in the colonial village-school curriculum. The decision to teach in Atjehnese — taken shortly before the Japanese occupation of 1942–1945 — marks a specific moment in the recognition of Atjehnese as a written language of instruction, set against the long colonial practice of using Malay (and, before that, Dutch) in Atjeh schools.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- Nederlandsch-Indië — Netherlands Indies
- Binnenlandsch Bestuur — Interior Administration
- onderwijs — education
- Het onderwijs aan de inheemsche bevolking — Education of the Indigenous Population
- Kleinhandelsschool — small-traders’ school
- Inlandsche Mulo — indigenous junior secondary school
- Volksschool — village school
- Vervolgschool — continuation school
- inheemsche bevolking — indigenous population
- inheemsche — indigenous
- Inlandsch — Indies indigenous
- landstaal — regional language
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Acheh — Aceh
- Celebes — Celebes
- Minangkabau — Minangkabau
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- C. W. Wormser
- Acheh
- Minangkabau
- Jappentijd (Japanese occupation, 1942-1945)
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), pp. 137–155 (chapter Het onderwijs aan de inheemsche bevolking door J. de Jong), with the Atjeh reference on p. 145.