School Literacy By: Kezia Aurelia

 

            Have you felt lazy to read? Prefer comic books than novels? Ignored reading instructions? Prefer to go to the theatre than the bookstore? Of course we all did. But, have you realized the impact?

According to UNESCO, in 2012 the interest index for reading culture in Indonesia is 0.001%. This means that only 1 in 1000 residents who is serious in reading! In 2016, The World’s Most Literate Nations (WMLN) study was the first to analyze literature activities in 61 countries. Indonesia was in the 60^th place with Finland in the 1^st place. Indonesia is below our neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore.

            This is absolutely a very serious problem in our country. People haven’t realized and do not care about this problem. If we don’t take action soon, Indonesia won’t be able to get anywhere. But why does this problem happen?

            People living in below poverty line were over than 26 million in September 2017, which approximately 11 percent if Indonesia’s population. People prioritized on food, clothes, and housing. That is understandable, but why do the people living above poverty line do not use their spare time reading?

Idleness and ignorance is the reason. People nowadays want efficiency, who doesn’t want to live easy? Why buy newspapers when you can listen to the news on the television?  Why read novels when you can see your friend’s social media?

In this globalization era, our dependency level for phones is really high. Not only adults and teenagers, it’s not rare to see children staring at their phones. Smart phones could be very useful to us, but we do not use it properly. We can read e-books, but we choose to watch cat videos on Youtube. Social media is very addictive and can decrease young generation’s interest in reading. Parents all over the world are getting worried about their children. The government is trying to solve this problem. But is it the government’s job to increase our interest in reading?

            No! It is our job to increase our own interest in reading and we have to do it starting at young age. Sint Carolus Junior High School noticed this problem and decided to immediately take action. In July 2018, Sint Carolus Junior High School introduced their students to an amazing new habit.

Before class starts, students are allowed to read any books or magazine for 15 minutes. During the first week, students underestimated this activity. But, at the end of July students were able to understand the importance and the benefits of reading. Speaking of benefits, do you know the benefits of reading?

There are a lot benefits of reading other than for entertainment. You can expand your vocabulary and knowledge, which can make you better at writing and thinking, you can improve your memory and concentration, and you can decrease daily life stress. You can gain all of those benefits simply by reading a good book for 15 minutes a day.

Students who do not have books can borrow some on the school’s library with over than 10 thousand books to choose! Educational books, fictional books, comic books, novels, almost any kind of books are available! Sint Carolus Junior High School hope this activity will inspire others to do the same and realize this important matter. If not now, when?