Telma Margareta Huka, Championing Native Language Literacy

Fabio Maria Lopes Costa

· 5 minutes read

Telma Margareta Huka has been fighting to preserve the use of the mother tongue in Papua since 2005. For her, learning in the mother tongue was more effective in overcoming the problem of high illiteracy among residents in the Papuan interior.

At around 7 a.m. on Thursday (5/9/2019), Telma left her home in the Waena area of Jayapura by motorcycle to the Papua branch of Suluh Insan Lestari in Hinekombe village, Sentani district, Jayapura regency.

Telma and her family used to live in Sentani. However, her house was severely damaged in the flash floods of March 16, 2019. So she, her husband and children moved to a close relative’s house in Waena. The Suluh Insan Lestari Papua coordinator travels 30 minutes from Waena to her office in Sentani.

Suluh Insan Lestari (SIL), formerly called the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is a research institution that has focused on preserving local language literacy for the last five decades in Papua, which has a total of 275 regional languages and dialects.

Half an hour later, Telma visited one of the early childhood schools (PAUD) in Hinekombe, about 1 kilometer away. The PAUD Papua Cerdas Mandiri (Pacema) is one early childhood school in Papua that teaches a mother language curriculum. The school’s children generally come from the central highlands.

Five teachers and around 20 students out of a total student body of 70 were in attendance that day. Most of the students were absent because they were still in disaster refugee camps. Telma spoke the Lani language when giving her feedback to a number of teachers regarding their teaching methods. Lani is the mother tongue spoken at Pacema.

Even though she had just lost her house and other property to the flash flood, Telma remained high-spirited as she worked, overseeing and providing guidance to teachers in implementing the mother language curriculum in several Papuan districts.

"This work has been my life for the past 10 years. Preserving Papua’s regional languages requires persistent efforts," said the mother of four.

Hundreds of teachers

Telma and her five colleagues at SIL Papua started collaborating with the Papua Education and Culture Office four years ago in implementing the mother language curriculum in the 10 regencies of Lanny Jaya, Tolikara, Central Mamberamo, Deiyai,

Nabire, Waropen, Jayapura Regency, Mimika, Merauke and Yahukimo.

In implementing the curriculum, Telma and her colleagues provide teaching materials that use the local language commonly spoken by the children at home.

Each school receives as many as 60 books in one school year. The books cover folklore, geometric shapes and the pronunciation of numbers and alphabets in the Lani, Mee, Marind, Sempan, Kimyal, Mek Nalca, Mek Kosarek, Moi, Korowai Batu and East Sentani languages. It only takes six months to distribute the books.

Teaching in the regional language is considered more effective for children in rural areas, because these children generally speak their mother tongue at home instead of the national language, Indonesian.

"Children learn shapes and the alphabets and numbers in their regional language. After that, they learn to read and count in Indonesian," Telma explained.

Telma also coached teaching staff on mother tongue teaching materials that had been provided to 32 PAUD and 19 elementary schools. Since 2015, Telma and her SIL Papua colleagues have trained 550 PAUD instructors and elementary school teachers in 10 regencies that implement the mother language curriculum.

Each instructor and teacher teaches an average of 30 students aged 3-6 years at one school. A PAUD only runs for 2 hours every day.

"I focus on guiding them in the mother tongue learning module for three to five days a week. The teaching methods include face-to-face, [classroom simulations], practicing children\'s songs and games," said Telma.

Papuan children

Initially, Telma joined SIL as a non-permanent staff in 2005. She was in charge of monitoring the literacy program SIL implemented in the regencies of Jayawijaya, Jayapura, Bintang Highlands and Central Mamberamo.

She often traveled to inland areas in these four regencies to monitor the implementation of the SIL language curriculum program for illiterate people ranging in age from 16 to 45.

The rough geographical conditions are a challenge for Telma. For example, Telma and a colleague almost drowned in 2006 while crossing a river with a strong current in Assologaima, Jayawijaya.

In the same year, she walked 11 hours to conduct a monitoring session in Yapil village, Bintang Highlands. The distance from Okbab district to Yapil is only 10 kilometers, but she must climb over mountains exceeding 1,000 meters above sea level.

In addition to the geographical conditions, armed groups are also active in the areas she is assigned to in the central Papuan highlands, such as Lanny Jaya.

"To implement the mother language curriculum in Lanny Jaya in 2015, we entered into an agreement with the group. They will not disturb us, as long as [our activities] relate only to providing education services for the local children," she said.

Telma has made all these efforts amidst the various challenges simply to provide proper education for Papuan children, because she found that many rural children were unable to read or count. Many of these areas did not have teachers, so the children had not received optimal education.

SIL conducted a survey of 100 students in grades 1-6 in four districts of Lanny Jaya before starting to implement the curriculum in 2015. The survey found that many children did not know their numbers and alphabets in Indonesian. This has resulted in an average length of schooling of only seven years in Papuan districts.

"Hopefully, using the mother tongue curriculum will dramatically reduce illiteracy. Children in the interior of Papua are more motivated to pursue high dreams in the future," Telma said.

Telma Margareta Huka

Born: Ambon, May 11, 1969

Husband: Hans Dortheis Imbiri

Children: Cicylia Imbiri, Ricky Imbiri, Nicko Imbiri, Lilyane Imbiri

Education

- Electronic Engineering, Indonesian Christian University Paulus, Makassar (1998)

- SMAN 2 Ambon (1985-1988)

- SMPN 6 Ambon (1982-1985)

- SDN 10 Ambon (1976-1982)

Editor:

kompascetak