Viral High School Students Can't Numerate Basic, DPR Leaders Encourage Education Reform

JAKARTA - Deputy Speaker of the Indonesian House of Representatives Cucun Ahmad Syamsurijal highlighted the viral video on social media regarding junior high school students who could not answer basic mathematical calculations, both multiplication and division.

Cucun encourages the government to immediately take strategic steps to improve the quality of human resources (HR) so that the younger generation of Indonesia can be more competitive.

"The presence of our children who lack literacy is quite worrying, because literacy determines the quality of our human resources. If the younger generation still has low literacy, we are worried that it will be difficult for them to compete in the midst of this fast-paced era challenge," Cucun told reporters, Saturday, November 16.

Apart from the basic calculations, it was also viral on social media which showed 29 junior high school students could not read. Reportedly the video is a student of SMP Negeri 1 Mangunjaya, Pangandaran Regency, West Java.

Although these videos cannot be generalized, Cucun sees that there needs to be improvements to the Indonesian education system. He also encouraged the Government to conduct an evaluation.

"That it is true that events on social media cannot be used as references. I am sure that many of our children are smart and have good academic competencies, but we also cannot ignore this phenomenon," said Cucun.

Cucun also mentioned various studies that show the lack of numeracy skills of Indonesian children. For example, based on the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) survey which shows the low probability of school-age students in mastering basic institutional materials.

Based on the IFLS test, it is known that the increase in education level did not significantly increase literacy skills. This can be seen from the IFLS test which shows that grade 1 children get a score of 26.5 percent and grade 12 children get a score of 38.7 percent.

This means, said Cucun, even though the student is upgraded to class, increasing the student's ability between level one and next level does not have a significant increase.

Many studies show the low literacy of school-age children, which may be caused by various factors, one of which is the quality gap in our educational services between big cities and in areas, "said Cucun.

Cucun said that the low literacy of Indonesian children was also supported by UNESCO data which stated that public interest in reading was lacking. According to UNESCO's report, only 1 in 1,000 people in Indonesia are diligent in reading. CCSU's World's Most Literate Nation Ranking also stated that Indonesia is ranked 60th out of 61 countries for reading interest.

Cucun said the interest in reading is one of the factors that can increase literacy for children.

"Because books are a world window. So the existence of research data is a serious indication that there is something missing in our education system. And this must be improved because we have the aim of realizing Indonesia Gold 2045," said the legislator from the West Java II electoral district.

Cucun reminded that superior human resources are a requirement for the realization of the vision of Golden Indonesia which can compete in the global arena. To create a superior generation, he said, the aspect of education is one of the main factors.

"We also can't turn a blind eye that not all of our children have the same opportunity to be able to access higher education that can improve their quality in the world of work," concluded Cucun.