The Praxis of Literacy Movement in Indonesian Context

Abstract

Indonesia faces challenges in improving its literacy rank. In 2011, the literacy level of Indonesian fourth graders were in the 45th rank (with score 428 under 500) from 48 countries in PIRLS. In 2015 PISA’s report the fifteen-year-old Indonesian Junior High School students, occupied the 64th rank of 72 countries with score 396 under 496. To overcome this problem, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture issued its Ministerial Regulation no. 23/2015 pertaining the students’ character building. This constitutes the basis of school-based literacy movement (Gerakan Literasi Sekolah). This study explores the praxis of literacy movement at one school (has implemented GLS since 2016) located in the condensed slum area of North Jakarta. Stratified purposeful sampling was deployed to select the research participants, i.e. 290 students and 20 teachers. The data were obtained from questionnaires and interviews. The result showed that not all teachers read the literacy guidelines determined by the government and their reading habit had not met the ideal number. Both teachers and students have different perception regarding to the time and frequency of schoolbased literacy activity. The fifteen minutes reading activity and reading strategies taught by the teachers were not varied. The teachers merely supervised the students while conducting the literacy activity. The students read the books they brought from home. The school-based literacy program gained the students’ literacy competence in understanding level (understand the content of the book they read) and built students’ character such as tolerance, teamwork skills, perseverance, responsibility, confidence, independence, politeness, and composure.
 Keywords: literacy movement, reading literacy, literacy competence, 15-minutereading activity