If strategic steps to improve the nation's children's literacy are not immediately taken, it will be hard for us to compete in the futureJakarta (ANTARA) - The National Literacy Movement needs support from all parties to accelerate the improvement of reading interest in Indonesia, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Deputy Speaker Lestari Moerdijat has said.
"If strategic steps to improve the nation's children's literacy are not immediately taken, it will be hard for us to compete in the future," she added in a written statement released here on Monday.
In a survey conducted by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), whose results were released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2019, Indonesia had ranked 62nd out of 70 countries, or in the bottom 10 countries with low literacy levels, Moerdijat noted.
According to data from the Language Development Agency of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, the ministry recently sent more than 2.5 million copies of supporting enrichment books to 41 regions that are included in the 3T regions (frontier, outermost, and remote regions) of four provinces, she said.
The four provinces are Papua, West Papua, Maluku, and North Maluku.
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"However, the government's efforts to distribute millions of books are not enough to accelerate the improvement of the nation's children's literacy," she said.
The community needs more books and reading materials, as well as a better reading atmosphere for the younger generation, the MPR deputy speaker added.
According to Moerdijat, efforts to build a reading culture cannot only focus on ensuring the availability of books and reading materials.
"More than that, we need consistent and measurable steps through the implementation of learning programs that are able to build a reading culture from an early age," she said.
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The community and enterprises' involvement is needed to expand the distribution of books and reading materials, she added.
If the availability of books and reading materials is ensured and the teaching methods support the improvement of the reading culture, what the country needs is consistency in all those efforts, she opined.
She expressed the hope that the push to improve Indonesians' literacy would soon generate results and boost the nation's competitiveness.
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Translator: Imam Budilaksono, Raka Adji
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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