VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Vice President, Ma'aruf Amin visited a book exhibition on the occasion of National Book Day at the Jakarta National Library building (Photo : Perpusnas) - 

VOInews, Jakarta : The Indonesian Vice President (Wapres) Ma'ruf Amin launched the Village Literacy Movement which was the highlight of the 44th Anniversary of the National Library of the Republic of Indonesia (Perpusnas) and National Book Day 2024. In his speech, on Friday (17/05/24) at Jakarta National Library Building, Vice President of Indonesia, Ma'aruf Amin said that the village literacy movement invites active participation of village communities in creating superior human resources and competitiveness in developing villages in Indonesia.

"The village literacy movement that will be launched today invites the active participation of village communities in creating superior and competitive human resources, especially in developing villages in Indonesia. This movement should be able to shape and change the mindset of village communities so that they can actively participate in development and empowerment programs for village communities launched by the government", Vice President said. 

Vice President Ma'aruf Amin added that books are the main medium for increasing literacy and a prerequisite for the birth of intellect. Books also encourage the development of critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities. Therefore libraries are important as a source of inspiration and a center for community literacy activities. 

Meanwhile, Acting Director of National Library E. Aminudin Aziz stated that one of National Library's missions is to organize a program to improve the reading culture and literacy skills of the community.

Since 2015, this program has become a national movement to welcome a Golden Indonesia 2045. However, the results of literacy development are still often questioned considering that facts are still found that show the low level of interest in reading among students and the general public.

"We believe that the low level of reading interest and literacy skills is due to the lack of availability of reading books that suit readers' interests. In fact, data shows that people's interest in reading is actually quite high," he said.

He said that the National Library was making efforts to coordinate with various stakeholders in providing quality books.

"Alignment of policies and programs that we have implemented is carried out with Bappenas, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Education and Culture, and Ministry of Villages PDTT with coordination from the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture," he said.

The understanding to harmonize literacy development policies and programs, he continued, resulted in several initiatives, namely National Library will build reading rooms in 10 thousand villages and community reading parks with the support of a thousand reading book titles for each reading room, the Ministry of Education and Culture will distribute around 27 million reading books to the surrounding area.

45 thousand elementary schools, the Ministry of Home Affairs optimizes the role of libraries in provinces, districts and cities to facilitate literacy programs, the Ministry of Villages PDTT provides village budget support for the operation of reading rooms and TBM in villages.

In the peak event, there was a symbolic handover of 10 million books for 10,000 villages, a symbolic handover of 27 million books for 45,000 elementary schools, a symbolic handover of library development aid in the form of mobile library cars and mobile library service motorbikes.

The event commemorating the 44th Anniversary of the National Library in 2024 was also enlivened with various exhibitions, such as library exhibitions from time to time, quality book exhibitions, exhibitions of ancient manuscripts and manuscripts, exhibitions of mobile libraries and TBMs, exhibitions of library transformation based on social inclusion (TPBIS), and exhibitions creativity of literacy activists//VOI