Nadiem: Low literacy is a problem that must be addressed immediately

Jakarta, The Indonesia Post – Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Nadiem Anwar Makarim stated that Indonesia’s low literacy rate is a fundamental problem that must be addressed immediately.

“This is one of the fundamental issues that we must change,” he said at the Launching of the 23rd Merdeka Learning Episode in Jakarta, Monday.

Based on the results of the 2021 National Assessment (AN), Indonesia is experiencing a literacy emergency, namely one in two students from elementary to high school have not yet reached the minimum literacy competency.

These results are consistent with the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the past 20 years which show that Indonesian children’s literacy scores are still low and have not increased significantly.

Even the literacy abilities of Indonesian students are still below the average literacy abilities of students in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

In addition, the AN results also show that there is a gap in literacy competence because there are still quite a number of schools, especially those in the outermost, lagging, and frontier (3T) areas, with literacy and numeracy ratings at level one or very low.

One of the efforts of the Ministry of Education and Culture in overcoming this problem is the launch of the 23rd Episode Freedom Learning policy entitled Quality Reading Books for Indonesian Literacy.

The Ministry of Education and Culture through this program will distribute quality reading books specifically for Early Childhood Education (PAUD) and Elementary Schools (SD).

Apart from sending books, the Ministry of Education and Culture will also conduct training and assistance for teachers and librarians of schools receiving books so that they can make better use of the books that have been distributed.

The aim of the training and mentoring is for schools to really understand the uses and benefits of the books they receive so that no books pile up in the library because they are not being used. (mhn/bbs)