"The cause behind the low reading habit is the lack or unavailability of reading materials that draw students' interest," he explained during the unveiling of Merdeka Belajar's 23rd episode.
The effort to improve reading is being undertaken through programs such as Merdeka Belajar's 23rd episode, entitled “Quality Reading Books for Indonesia Literacy.”
The “Quality Reading Books for Indonesia Literacy” is the result of a collaboration among several main units of the ministry, including the Language Development and Guidance Agency and the Education Standard Curriculum and Assessment Agency (BSKAP).
It is also the result of collaboration between the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, and Middle Education as well as the Education Teacher and Worker Directorate.
The program will focus on the provision of quality reading books for children at the level of early childhood education and primary school, accompanied by the training of teachers.
However, he informed that the book delivery program is not a new policy implemented by his ministry.
Still, the program of the Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Ministry features several breakthroughs, in terms of the number of volumes, the number of titles, and the types of books being delivered.
"This is a book delivery program with the highest number of books and recipients throughout the history of the ministry," Makarim remarked.
The breakthroughs are also reflected in the approach undertaken in distributing the books as well as the selection of schools for the book delivery.
In 2022, the ministry provided more than 15 million quality reading books as well as training and assistance to more than 20 thousand early childhood education institutions and primary schools that needed them the most.
The training for teachers was undertaken to help schools better utilize the books given to them.
The minister said he expects that school teachers and librarians will truly understand the benefits of the distributed books so that no books pile up at libraries due to neglect.
Meanwhile, head of the National Library, Muhammad Syarif Bando, expressed support for the policy since it involves school libraries in expediting the improvement of human resource quality.
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Translator: Astrid F H, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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