ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that despite the ambivalent attitude of the government towards English, there have been many landmarks that highlight the efforts of both government and English language teaching (ELT) practitioners to improve the quality of ELT in Indonesia which may represent its dynamics in Indonesian secondary schools. It describes the Indonesian secondary education system and the place of English in it. The first head of The Central Inspectorate of English Language Instruction in the Ministry of Education in 1955 formally stated that English would never become a second language in Indonesia, but it must be the first foreign language. The changes in Indonesian secondary education are commonly triggered by government initiatives. The chapter surveys the government efforts to improve the quality of teachers in Indonesia, including the quality of English teachers of secondary schools. Although English is only a foreign language, its position in the Indonesian education curriuculum is quite strong.
