MPR Fight for National Literacy Movement – Lestari Moerdijat, deputy speaker of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), has stated that in order to boost reading enthusiasm in Indonesia, the National Literacy Movement needs cooperation from all parties.
She asserted that it will be difficult for us to compete in the future if deliberate actions are not done to increase the literacy of the country’s youth.
Moerdijat highlighted that Indonesia had placed 62nd out of 70 nations, or in the bottom 10 countries with poor literacy levels, in the PISA survey, the results of which were published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2019.
According to the information from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology’s Language Development Agency, the ministry herself 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; such as Papua, West Papua, Maluku, and North Maluku.
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The MPR deputy speaker said that the community needs more books and reading materials, as well as a better reading environment for the younger generation. But the availability of books and other reading materials cannot be the main goal of initiatives to promote reading. Moerdijat claimed that more than that, Indonesia has to take continuous, measurable efforts by putting in place educational initiatives that can instill a culture of reading from a young age.
The engagement of businesses and the community is required to increase the availability of books and reading materials. The nation needs constancy in all those efforts, even if the supply of books and reading materials is guaranteed and the teaching strategies encourage the development of the reading culture.
She expressed the expectation that the drive to increase literacy among Indonesians will soon produce results and increase the country’s competitiveness globally.
