This article created by: Imanuel Kamlasi (Doctoral Student at Language Education Study, Program of Faculty of Language and Art State University of Semarang).

Introduction

Literacy has become a serious problem in our beloved country the Republic of Indonesia for a couple of years. The data on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2019 pointed out that Indonesia is in the 62nd position out of 70 in terms of student literacy skills.

The data reveal that Indonesia is facing a serious problem on literacy skills. This figure describes the accumulation of literacy skills from all parts of Indonesia. Indonesia's unique geographical condition makes it challenging to equal book distribution which causes children living in rural areas to be left behind. The infrastructures such as library, reading room, books, electricity, internet connection become the source of literacy problem in rural areas. The access to school also contributes to higher literacy problems.

Liu (2021) emphasized the factors affecting the literacy rate in rural areas are financial status, gender differences, health challenges, and policy interventions. These problems do not kill the spirit of teachers to develop Indonesian human resources in rural areas. 

Government Policies

The Indonesian government has made efforts to improve students' literacy skills through the implementation of regulations. The Minister of Education and Culture Regulation Number 23 of 2015 about character building which implicitly states the national literacy movement in which 15 minutes of reading program before the class starts in the morning. The purposes of this program are to improve the students’ interest in reading and to improve the students’ reading ability. As a matter of fact; the Minister of Education and Culture launched the National Literacy Movement in 2016. The Law of number 3 of 2017 implicitly states the national literacy movement which is implemented in all levels of schools in all parts of Indonesia. The implementation of the school literacy movement is expected to improve the culture or habits of reading. The decision of the Board of Standard; Curriculum and Assessment number 033/H/KR/2022 discusses much on the implementation of the school literacy movement. This decision states that literacy is an indicator for the development of Indonesian students; thus, literacy is applied in all subjects. Through the implementation of the school literacy movement, it is expected to increase students’ literacy skills. The local government also supports this literary movement through legal regulation to succeed this program. The question comes to my mind to what extent does the local government support this program? The literacy movement needs responsibility from local government, schools, parents, community, and stakeholders to take part in this program.

Rural Area

East Nusa Tenggara is one of the provinces in Indonesia which is categorized as the rural area or in Bahasa called Daerah Tertinggal (see the presidential regulation number 63 of 2020). Daerah Tertinggal must match these requirements such as economy, human resources, infrastructure, fundings, accessibility, characteristics of the region. In many countries rural development is the key to national development (Cátala, 1969), thus demographic and economic factors are considered as the source of the problem. Living in a rural area is challenging for people to live equally with other people who do not live in non-rural areas. Teaching in a rural area has become a blessing job for the teachers. Rural areas have lots of incomplete characteristics such as infrastructures; references; internet connection, access to go to school, technology equipment, human resources; economy and so forth. On the other hand; it is a complete disease in this rural area. Even though there are so many challenges faced in a rural area; but the teachers have the spirit and love to teach the students in terms of literacy. Therefore; I do need to appreciate their efforts in developing human resources in rural areas. We cannot imagine how difficult it is for the teachers to run the literacy movement in an incomplete infrastructure. 

Challenges on literacy movement

The implementation of the National Literacy Movement in rural areas is challenging for the teachers. This phenomenon becomes an issue for developing the Indonesian human resources. Recently; the Minister of Education and Culture launched the National Literacy Movement which is implemented in all parts of Indonesia including rural areas. The purpose is to improve people’s knowledge through reading activities. The Reading Literacy Activity Index of 34 provinces in 2019 showed that East Nusa Tenggara was categorized as low level (Solihin, et al. 2019). CNN Indonesia (2nd March 2023) reported that literacy and numeracy in East Nusa Tenggara province is still at a low level (https://app.cnnindonesia.com/).

We cannot deny this achievement; but the most important thing; we need to reflect and find out the solution to overcome this problem. In contrast with Liputan 6 (14th October 2022), this media reported from the data from Board of Statistics Centre of 2022 that East Nusa Tenggara was in the 8th position out of 34 provinces in Indonesia that like reading. They spend 5 hours per week and read 4-5 books in three months (https://www.liputan6.com/).

The data convince us that the literacy movement in the rural area is still a problem and a challenge for teachers. The problems which are found in rural areas as mentioned in the previous part have become a burden for teachers. These very complete problems are believed to be the source of problems in the literary movement. Books are claimed as a fundamental need for literacy activities.

Accessibility to go to school is a very difficult problem because many students take kilometres to get to school on foot. They spend most of their time to get to school rather than studying. In the rainy season many students cannot go to school because they have to cross the rivers or go through the mud road. Many parents cannot buy computers or mobile phones to support their children because they are categorized as low economy level.

The electric network has not been installed in all parts of rural areas and it is of course many activities are done manually; including reading activities. Many parents assume that education is the teacher's responsibility therefore the parents could not contribute to their children's literacy activities. They did not teach them reading at home; they just sent them to go to school and study at school for only a few hours.

This case is claimed as lost control and no responsibility from parents. Very few parents could support their children's literacy especially in reading activities. My experiences when I assisted Sekolah Penggerak in the rural areas; I found a number of literacy problems with the scores are in the low level (red colour) which are found on Rapor Pendidikan. Conversely, I found the efforts from the teachers to improve students' literacy skills. Therefore; I appreciate the teachers' spirit in improving the students' literacy ability.

Solutions 

I am writing this article for the readers, especially the teachers and the decision makers to be used as the solutions on the literacy movement in the rural areas. In my opinion, the local problems must be overcome through local action. The intervention of the local government is very important in making decisions and controlling the literacy activities in the rural areas. The local government through the education department must really work hard to control the literacy activities in all schools. Lopo is a term for a traditional house which is round and has no wall; it is very comfortable to do literacy activities. There must be a Lopo Literacy in all villages so; the children can do literacy activities in this traditional house (lopo). The local government should recruit literacy teachers and place them in every village. The program of 15 minutes for reading is not enough to improve students' reading ability therefore; the schools should allocate more time for literacy activities. It will be better to have one new subject which is called Literacy Subject, so teachers focus on literacy skill.

Conclusion 

At the end of this writing; I want to sum up some points as the conclusion. To overcome the literacy problems in the rural areas; it needs responsibility from all components. I believe that a good collaboration among local government, schools, parents, community, and stakeholders will reduce the number of literacy problems in the rural areas. The characteristics of the rural areas do not kill the spirit of teachers to improve the literacy skill therefore; there must be a high appreciation from the government.