In the Central Connecticut State University research entitled “World’s Most Literate Nations” published in 2016, Indonesia ranked 60 from 61 countries surveyed. One of the factors behind such a suboptimal result is the low reading interest of society. Such a fact has encouraged many local governments in Indonesia to create programs that could stimulate the reading interest of the society.
Regarding the low reading interest of the society in Indonesia, JARI Foundation cooperating with the REC Indonesia Foundation and GIZ Indonesia, initiated a forum entitled, “Online Panel Discussion: Penguatan Kesadaran dan Budaya Literasi di Indonesia). The key players of this program are Returning Expert and German alumni that play a substantial role in facilitating the collaboration and knowledge-sharing made possible by the Online Panel Discussion.
Furthermore, the program’s purpose was to share knowledge on key concepts to tackle problems regarding the low level of reading interest in Indonesia and invite relevant organisations for a collaborative effort to tackle those problems. Each organisation invited to the Online Panel Discussion offered the strengths so they were able to initiate collaborations accordingly.
We are thankful for the contribution given by all parties that have been involved and joined JARI Foundation’ s webinar, entitled ” Online Panel Discussion: Penguatan Kesadaran dan Budaya Literasi di Indonesia”, specifically to GIZ Indonesia for the financial support enabling us to carry out this webinar. To the REC Indonesia Foundation and literacy activists across Indonesia who have given their meaningful contribution, we express our gratitude for them.
The event went well with 62 participants out of 103 registrants able to share their concerns regarding the lack of reading interest problem in Indonesia. During the event, topics such as the importance of understanding Indonesia’s history, how to better cooperate across youth organizations, as well as how the government would tackle the problems more strategically have been discussed thoroughly. We hope that the discussion results could spark more interests and desire for contribution to those whose concerns in the field are high.
In the end, on behalf of all the committee members, we apologise for all the deficiencies that occurred during the event. We believe that we can still improve many aspects of our life, including the reading interest of the Indonesian people.