While Indonesia's literacy ranking has been improving, adult illiteracy remains a huge problem for national education.

Poor reading habits coupled with a lack of critical thinking and practical learning can make people's illiteracy relapse, especially among those above 15 years of age, education expert Winarno Surakhmad says.

"It is very likely for people to forget things they study- including literacy - if they don't practice them continually."

Illiteracy relapse does not mean people forget how to read or write completely, but more that they may fail to develop their skills and make them useful in their lives.

According to the Education Ministry, literacy can be divided into four areas: First, functional literacy which includes the abilities of reading, writing, and calculating; second, content literacy whereby people must be able to communicate both in written and verbal forms about the content of reading materials; technology literacy, in which people's abilities to write, read, talk and listen are applied through various media forms; and last is innovative literacy which requires people to use their abilities to solve problems, and to create unique and innovative work.

According to the United Development Program's (UNDP) Human Development Report for 2007, Indonesia's literacy rate was 90.4 percent that year, meaning that 9.6 percent of the population were illiterate.

This was higher than Malaysia whose illiteracy rate stood at 7.7 percent, Brunei Darussalam with 6.1 percent, and Thailand and the Philippines - both with 7.4 percent.

"That means one in every eight Indonesians is still illiterate. This shows that our education performance is still poor, at least it's not something we can be proud of yet," says National Education Commission secretary and former Taman Siswa council head Ki Supriyoko.

Taman Siswa is a national education organization that was established during the Dutch colonial period. It aimed to change the education system, which at that time was dominated by the Dutch education system, and make it more suited to Indonesian culture.

Taman Siswa also generated three slogans which became the basis of Indonesia's vision for a national education system - including Tut Wuri Handayani (encouragement).

Commenting on the prospect of zero illiteracy in Indonesia, Winarno says, "I think it's impossible to eradicate illiteracy completely , but at least we can reduce the numbers if there's continuing efforts from all related stakeholders."

There also needs to be improvements in school curricula, inserting more subjects that can stimulate students' critical and creative thinking, he said.

Acccording to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in 2006 the total number of illiterate people in Indonesia was 12.88 million (mainly women). Most of these, around 3.4 million, were in East Java. In 2007, that number had decreased by 11.5 percent to 11.4 million.

Data from the ministry shows that as of last year, 10.16 million Indonesians, or 6.22 percent the total population aged above 15 years are illiterate. Among the total, 6.6 million people are women.

"We're targeting to reduce illiteracy to 5 percent in 2009, which is equivalent to around 7.7 million people," the ministry's public education director, Ella Yulaelawati, said at her office recently.

To achieve this goal, as well as maintaining its compulsory nine years of basic education program (which is expected to automatically help reduce illiteracy rates among children), the government is working to eradicate illiteracy among adults.

"We realize that one of the main problems for national education is adult illiteracy, but we know that we can't apply the same methods when dealing with adults," Ella says.

"We're collaborating with lots of different people including regents, mayors, village heads and NGOs, as well as college students through internships," she said.

"And I think it works well when college students get involved . People become so open with them."

The learning materials used for adults were taken and developed from adult learners' environments and includes skill areas suited to adults' interests and needs, ideally so that the training can help adults to improve their lives through literacy, Ella says.

The study materials include training on how to make brooms, how to develop fishing skills and even in accounting.

Ella, however, acknowledges that sometimes it is difficult to maintain class numbers since adults are often occupied other aspects of their lives.

In order to prevent illiteracy relapse, people need wider and easier access to reading materials such as newspapers, and libraries, Paramadina University Education Reforms Institute director Utomo Dananjaya says.

"This can help people memorize what they have learned and stimulate their critical thinking too."

The government's pledge to increase the national education budget for next year is also a positive step toward the eradication of illiteracy, provided it keeps its promise, Utomo said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had said that the government planned to increase the education budget to 20 percent of the state's expenditure for 2009 - or about Rp 224.44 trillion (US$24.45 billion), compared to Rp 154.2 trillion last year.

The government has allocated Rp 558 billion ($60.96 million) for the public education directorate, Rp 497 billion of which is for its illiteracy eradication program, Ella said.

- Novia D. Rulistia

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