JAKARTA - Every May 17, Indonesia commemorates National Book Day to raise public awareness of the importance of reading. National Book Day was first commemorated in 2002, triggered by the then Minister of Education, Abdul Malik Fadjar.
The decision to commemorate the day on May 17 also coincided with the founding of the National Library, which was on May 17, 1980. National Book Day is commemorated on the basis of low interest in reading Indonesian people.
National Book Day commemorations are expected to foster a culture of reading society. Quoting from Kompas, the idea of National Book Day was initiated by the book lovers community.
They want to spur the level of interest in reading in society. In fact, the book-loving community wants National Book Day to be celebrated like Valentine's Day.
"We want to have a Book Day commemoration like Valentine's Day, where everyone gives a book to others", said the Chairman of the Indonesian Publishers Association (IKAPI) at the time, Arselan Harahap.
At that time, Minister Abdul Malik fully realized that the desire is not an easy thing to realize. But Abdul Malik also realizes reading has a strategic function, one of which is knowing what will happen in the future.
Reading interests in Indonesia
By 2020, Finland will be ordained as the country with the highest level of literacy in the world. Finland topped the world literacy table in a study conducted by John Miller, President of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
The study looked at literacy attainment tests as well as on so-called "literacy behavioral characteristics", ranging from the number of libraries, newspapers to school years and the availability of computers in the country.
In that study, the Nordic countries did dominate the summit. Finland in the first place, Norway in second, then Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden round out the top five.
Looking to Asia, there is Thailand at number 59 and Indonesia at number 60. Meanwhile, according to UNESCO data, the reading interest of Indonesians is only 0.001 percent or there is only 1 in a thousand Indonesians who are diligent in reading.
Citing the website of the Library of The Ministry of Trade, the low level of literacy of Indonesia because for decades the People of Indonesia struggled on the downstream side. Head of National Library (Perpusnas) M Syarif Bando said the downstream side in question is a society that continues to be judged as a society that is low in reading culture.
"It is automatically because it is claimed as a nation that is low in reading culture, then the literacy index is also low", said Syarif.
In addition, the number of reading materials with the total population of Indonesia has a national ratio of 0.09. The easy explanation is that one book is awaited by 90 people every year.
This resulted in Indonesia having the lowest level in the reading favorite index. "UNESCO standards are at least 3 new books for each person each year", he said.
Syarif said there is one solution that can be taken to reduce the ratio of book limitations nationally. The trick is that officials, such as regents, mayors, and governors are charged with the responsibility of writing books according to local content, such as cultural origin, geographical origin, SDA potential, regional potential, regional tourism, and others.
This National Book Day, in addition to the aim of increasing the interest in reading, is also aimed at reminding the importance of reading. Reading will be able to make people more literate of the world and understand what areas will be studied in the future.
*Read more information about BOOK or read other interesting writings from Putri Ainur Islam.
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