Portuguese As Diplomacy Communication Or Student Needs?

President Prabowo Subianto and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva exchanged souvenirs in the form of jerseys for their respective national football teams at the State Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (23/10/2025). (PRESIDENTIAL MEDIA TIM)

JAKARTA President Prabowo Subianto's meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (23/10/2025), led to a surprising decision. Prabowo wants Portuguese to exist as a subject of foreign language taught at schools to campuses in Indonesia.

This meeting at the State Palace is a moment of reply after President Prabowo visited Brazil last July. Not only that, the meeting also marked the close relationship between the two different continents.

As an affirmation of Indonesia's commitment to strengthening relations with Brazil, Prabowo conveyed an important decision.

"Because of the importance of this relationship, I decided that Portuguese will be one of the priority languages in our education. We want this relationship to develop better. Apart from English, Arabic, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Russian. Now Portuguese is also a priority language for us, "said Prabowo.

However, many parties question the urgency of learning Portuguese in schools. Currently, student literacy skills in Indonesia are concerning, and are of concern to many parties.

Based on the results of PISA 2022, Indonesia's score related to literacy and numeracy has decreased so that Indonesia's position is ranked 70 out of 80 countries. In addition, Indonesia's ranking in English skills, which is among the franca, also dropped to 80 out of 116 countries from the English Profency Index EF survey.

Linguistics lecturer at Multimedia Nusantara University, Niknik M Kuntarto has no problem with President Prabowo's idea of including Portuguese students, but there are conditions that need to be considered. First, Indonesian is still prioritized and regional languages are also preserved, only after that he learns foreign languages. This is in accordance with the Trigatra Build Language.

Foreign languages, said Niknik, are important to teach so that future generations can master it as a means of opening the world window, expanding insight, and increasing the competitiveness of Indonesian human resources in the midst of globalization.

President Prabowo's plan to include Portuguese as one of the selected foreign languages taught in schools is still in line with the third item of Trigatra Bangun Bahasa, namely corruption of foreign languages'. We must welcome foreign languages well because it will enrich the territory of Indonesian languages," said Niknik, quoted by Kompas.

In today's era, there are a number of foreign languages that must at least be controlled by students in Indonesia, namely English, Mandarin, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, French, and Portuguese.

English, as is known globally, is very important to master as the most commonly used international language in global business, education, and communication.

Second, there is Mandarin which has great potential to increase the competitiveness of Indonesian graduates in the global work market, given China's rapid economic and industrial development. Arabic is equally important in the context of diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between Indonesia and Middle Eastern countries.

Japanese and Korean are also important in the context of economic and technology cooperation between Indonesia, Japan and Korea. French is an important language in the context of diplomatic and cultural relations between Indonesia and countries in Europe.

"Finally, Portuguese is important as a means of communication for diplomatic and economic relations between Indonesia and Brazil. Once again I emphasize that foreign languages from any country are good for teaching students in Indonesia," he said.

Speaking of diplomatic, Indonesia's relations with Brazil are intimate. These two countries are members of the BRICS organization or the economic bloc of developing countries, which is now led by President Lula.

The two countries also agreed on a number of cooperation, namely the energy and mining cooperation of the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources with the Ministry of Mineral and Energy of Brazil.

There is also the collaboration between technology science and innovation of the National Research and Innovation Agency with the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. The statistical cooperation between the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics was also carried out.

But when the idea of entering Portuguese into subjects in Indonesia, of course there are many things that need to be considered. English teaching expert Itje Chodidjah said, teaching foreign languages is quite complex so it must be delivered appropriately to children so that the results are in the form of skills and good attitudes in communicating actively.

"Imagine wanting to learn fun, but those who invite not to be proficient," he said.

Education observer Darmaningtyas said that every language learning must always be associated with its practical functions, such as English, Chinese, and Japanese language lessons that do have many practical functions.

"But for Portuguese, apart from not having a teaching staff, what are the practical benefits for? A little Portuguese investment in Indonesia, our people who continue to study in Portugal are few. The practical benefits are not there," said Darmaningtyas when contacted by VOI.

Incorporating Portuguese lessons to schools, said Darmaningtyas, requires great infrastructure support, starting from providing language laboratories, providing teachers, and so on. For this reason, the decline is not necessary for the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education to include President Prabowo's proposal.

Not all presdent statements must be followed, but the urgency and practical function must be seen. If it is not urgent and there is no practical function, even though the president's request does not have to be fulfilled," he concluded.