Indonesian newspapers and educators wanting to promote English language usage are looking to the New Straits Times Newspaper-in-Education programme in Kuala Lumpur as an example.

A group of Indonesian reporters, teachers and NIE managers visited Balai Berita in the capital city Friday to find out how the newspaper is promoting the programme, the New Straits Times reported Monday.

Leading the group was Kukuh Sanyoto, executive director of NIE under the Indonesian Newspaper Association.

To learn more about how to encourage learning English as a second language, the tour group visited a NIE creative expression workshop for children ages 5 to 7, and a debate workshop for 13-to-15-year-olds, the New Straits Times reported.

Sanyoto said the Jakarta Post, which is starting English workshops, is experiencing problems instituting the programme, and can learn from problems the New Straits Times experienced when it pioneered NIE 21 years ago in Malaysia. Following the workshop, he said he will recommend the New Straits Times' NIE programme to the Jakarta Post.

“We face similar problems in teaching English as a second language and the troubling disparity in the command of the English language and Bahasa Indonesia between the more language-savvy urban students and less newspaper-exposed rural students,” Sanyoto is quoted by the New Straits Times as saying.