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Your letters: Mandatory reading
Reading habit: A school-age girl reads a book in a library in Cilandak, South Jakarta
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Reading habit: A school-age girl reads a book in a library in Cilandak, South Jakarta. The government has called on students to regularly visit libraries to reinforce the knowledge they gain in school.(JP/AWO) (JP/AWO)
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span class="inline inline-center">Reading habit: A school-age girl reads a book in a library in Cilandak, South Jakarta. The government has called on students to regularly visit libraries to reinforce the knowledge they gain in school.(JP/AWO)
Culture and Education Minister Anies Baswedan on July 24 issued Ministry Regulation No. 21/2015 on the development of character.
One requirement of the new regulation is the obligation for students to read non-curriculum books for 15 minutes before the first lesson begins. The activity aims to provide space for them to develop new interests, talents and basic skills.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 ranked Indonesian the second lowest of the 65 countries studied in terms of ability of Indonesian children aged 15 years in mathematics, science and reading.
Under Law No. 43/2007 on libraries each school must have a library that meets national standards. Schools must allocate at least 5 percent of their operational budgets to meet this requirement. However, of the more than 148,000 elementary schools in Indonesia, only 50,000 have libraries.
That figure is lowered even more when we examine how many of those school libraries meet standards in terms of their collections, infrastructure, library staff, services and management.
Only a few favored schools would likely treat their library as 'the heart of a school' and consider it vital in supporting the learning process.
Several schools without libraries or lacking enough books have cooperative book-lending agreements with village libraries, society reading rooms and other organizations. However, eventually this approach will be unsustainable given the possible shortage of books.
What should be immediately pursued is subsidized book publication and development of school libraries. In accordance with the UNESCO Manifesto and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, the government is obliged to build school libraries.
Without cooperation and awareness from each stakeholder, as well as the government's commitment to build adequate school libraries, the new policy mandating reading non-curriculum books for 15 minutes before the first lesson will not be effective.
Agus M. Irkham
Batang, Central Java
