In order to improve the students’ literacy at the Primary School level, Room to Read/ProVisi together with Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology held an online session of “Training on the Utilization of Quality Reading Books for Indonesian Literacy” from 9 to 11 May 2023 . This training aims to improve the skills of book management and reading activities for school principals, teachers, and librarians from schools that have received quality reading book grants.
The training presents experts from Room to Read/ProVisi who share knowledge and the best strategies for managing and utilizing books according to the needs of primary schools. Not only that, participants also learned creative methods to cultivate reading habits from the two facilitators, Ryna Mardiyana and Enda Hidayat.
Previously on 27 February 2023, the Quality Reading Books Program for Indonesian Literacy was spotlighted in the 23rd Merdeka Learning episode, where more than 15 million copies of quality reading books were distributed to more than 20 thousand preschool, kindergartens, and primary school educators who were most in need. This online training complements other programs to improve students’ literacy through reading books.
The training was officially opened on 9 May 2023 by Dr. Muhammad Hasbi, Director of Primary Schools of Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. In his remarks, he said, “based on the results of the national assessment, one out of two students has not reached the minimum literacy competency. The key to the success of students in literacy competence is the ability of school principals, teachers and librarians to utilize reading books.”
As many as 494 participants from Banten, West Nusa Tenggara and East Java who took part in the training this time are expected to have the knowledge and skills to manage reading books, carry out fun reading activities, use books for extracurricular activities, and even train teachers from other schools.
David Strawbridge, a representative from Room to Read, conveyed the same thing. The participants were invited to start practicing reading aloud because a pleasant reading experience at a young age will have a big impact on children even until they grow up.