Helpful tool: IPG Rajang Campus student Joefrena Jessnita Peteron Panting showing the new English-Iban dictionary at its launch in Kuching. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
KUCHING: Sarawak wants to establish an Iban language course at a local university in order to produce more trained teachers in the language, says Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.
He said there is currently a lack of trained Iban language teachers in primary and secondary schools in the state.
For the 2022-2023 academic session, he said, only 385 out of 2,836 Iban language teachers in primary schools were trained, and in secondary schools, only 63 out of 282 teachers had the Iban language option.
“I am requesting increased efforts to train our teachers. I understand that there was no intake of students for the Iban language option in the last two years, but there will be a new intake this year.
“I will discuss with the Education Ministry whether universities in Sarawak can offer the Iban language as a training programme for Iban language teachers,” he told reporters after launching a new English-Iban dictionary at the Teacher Education Institute (IPG) Batu Lintang Campus here yesterday.
Uggah said while an Iban language course is available at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) in Perak, the lack of lecturers, attributed to its distance from Sarawak, poses a challenge.
He said he intends to discuss the possibility of bringing the course to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.
On the dictionary, Uggah praised the commendable effort to ensure the development of the Iban language in line with current times.
The dictionary, compiled by Iban language lecturers from IPG Rajang Campus and the Association for the Educational Development of the Iban Language, contains over 65,000 entries, including new words for terms like carbon trading and artificial intelligence.
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 is 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.
