S’wak wants Iban language taught at local universities, says Deputy Premier

KUCHING: Sarawak wants an Iban language course to be offered at local universities in order to produce more trained teachers in the language, says Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.

The Deputy Premier said the course was available at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) in Perak, but he was informed that there was a lack of lecturers due to its distance from Sarawak.

He said he would discuss bringing the course to local universities, particularly Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas).

"I will discuss with Unimas on this matter and pursue it, maybe we can have the Iban language course here to be staffed by Sarawakians," he told reporters after launching a new English-Iban dictionary at the Teacher Education Institute (IPG) Batu Lintang Campus here on Thursday (Jan 25).

Uggah also called for more efforts to train Iban language teachers for primary and secondary schools.

For the 2022-2023 academic session, he said, only 385 out of 2,836 Iban language teachers in primary schools were trained in the language. In secondary schools, only 63 out of 282 teachers had the Iban language option.

"I understand that in the last two years there was no intake of students for the Iban language option, but this year there will be a new intake.

"We want to upgrade the facilities so that the study of the Iban language will continue, not only for Iban students but for all students who are interested," he said.

On the dictionary, Uggah said it was a commendable effort to ensure that the Iban language would continue to develop in line with current times.

He said it contained over 65,000 entries, including new words for terms like carbon trading and artificial intelligence to bring the Iban vocabulary up to date.

The dictionary was compiled by Iban language lecturers from IPG Rajang Campus and the Association for the Educational Development of the Iban Language (Aedil).

Former IPG Rajang Campus director Dr Lambat Lindong, who coordinated the project, said the dictionary took three years to compile, with the final draft ready for publication in August last year.

He said it was targeted primarily at those doing writing and research work in Iban, including professionals and media practitioners.

"The dictionary is especially useful for people working in certain fields that use English, who are often requested to write or speak in Iban about their field of work.

"There are also users from other races proficient in the Iban language who find the dictionary a particularly helpful resource.

"I was informed that one copy has reached England and another copy will make its way to Australia soon.

"Overall, this dictionary is our contribution towards developing, modernising, revitalising and preserving the Iban language," Lambat said.