Abstract
Most Moslem-Majority countries nowadays are still facing a low reading literacy rate of their population, even though the first verse revealed in the Quran speaks of the importance of reading in human life. This paper is aimed at portraying reading literacy in the Moslem world and identifying factors influencing this literacy attainment based on PISA studies. The descriptive-comparative analysis is used to depict the students' reading performance of ten Moslem-Majority countries participating in PISA. The result of this study is that most Moslem-Majority countries lag behind the average of OECD countries. Most of the students were not able to demonstrate the ability of the most fundamental knowledge and skills for the 21st century. Because reading literacy is the basis for self-development, the Moslem worlds face the tremendous challenge that less than one percent of students achieved high literacy levels; those are the ones who will live on in a global society; while the rest were at the lowest level who shall show solemn setbacks in applying this ability to extend their knowledge and skills. The factors influencing this ability are situated in the national and community contexts that shape home, classroom, and school activities in reading. This situation then affects the instruction and experiences in student's reading. The result of this comparison contributes to the improvement of education systems among the participating countries. This is also a warning that the Moslem worlds have identical educational problems to prepare the next Moslem generation for a better life facing the challenge of globalization.
Highlights
Even though in its golden age when Islam occupied nearly one-third of the planet and the Moslem authority at that time took the lead of the world in terms of literary tradition, the Moslem today faces serious and severe problems
Being the largest Islamic majority country – the fourth largest population and the third-largest democracy in the world, Indonesia is almost akin to other Moslem-Majority countries in the sense that the problems related to religiosity and social responsibility, education, health, and prosperity are left unsolved
Indonesia ranked 140 out of 208 countries surveyed, which was under Uganda, Gabon, Jordan, Tunisia, Guyana, Mozambique, Oman, Suriname, Turkey, Maldives, and even under Kazakhstan, Albania, and Kyrgyzstan that in some international education studies, they are always in the bottom lines
Summary
Even though in its golden age when Islam occupied nearly one-third of the planet and the Moslem authority at that time took the lead of the world in terms of literary tradition, the Moslem today faces serious and severe problems. Various studies on education and literacy levels of our students suggest that the future of the Islamic nation will not change much because of the level of education and low literacy [8]. Another striking occurrence is the result of research that reveals that Moslem-Majority countries do not necessarily live following Islamic precepts wholeheartedly in everyday life [9]–[11]. The highest ‘Islamic country’ is New Zealand followed by Luxembourg, Ireland, Iceland, and Finland This means that non-Moslem-Majority countries are 'more Islamic' than Moslems in carrying out the principles of Islam in daily life. Indonesia ranked 140 out of 208 countries surveyed, which was under Uganda, Gabon, Jordan, Tunisia, Guyana, Mozambique, Oman, Suriname, Turkey, Maldives, and even under Kazakhstan, Albania, and Kyrgyzstan that in some international education studies, they are always in the bottom lines
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
