It
is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something
worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations—something that
will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out
toward people whose lives are quite different from their own. (Katherine Patterson)
Image Credit: https://about.uniteforliteracy.com/2019/05/two-simple-ways-to-help-struggling-readers/ |
The
previous article, Reading Crisis: The Culprit of
Indonesian Education Low Quality, shows that Indonesia's
national education that had lasted for almost 75 years has been successful in
terms of quantity aspects but is still slumped in terms of quality because most students suffer from the reading crisis. The modern education system is highly dependent on
literacy. Thus, negligence of reading will directly harm learning quality. Reading is naturally a complex activity involving so many aspects that its teaching success
or failure is determined by many factors. Thomas (2019) affirms that reading
is a complex cognitive process mediated by social and cultural practices and
requiring instruction and interaction with texts and others to construct
meaning. So, reading is essentially conducted to build meaning by
interacting with texts and involves cognitive, physical, social, and cultural aspects
and the media. Also, unlike speaking skills that can be acquired
naturally, reading skills must be taught. This article identifies six reasons why Indonesian students undergo the reading crisis viewing from the nature of reading itself.
The first reason is that the reading instructions have not yet managed to develop students’ basic reading
skills.ACDP's (2012) found that only 29% of teachers in Indonesia used effective methods and the student-centered learning approach in reading instruction. Consequently, only 50% of grade 3 students from 184 elementary schools in 7 provinces in the country could read fluently and understood most (not all) of the contents of the text they read. Students' failure
to master the basic reading skills will impede them to read for pleasure, and
such lack of reading for pleasure will eventually hamper their interest in
reading to learn and reading for functional goals. Makenzi (2004) asserts that student’s lack
of basic reading skills mastery has caused millions of children in developing
countries unable to develop further reading skills like their peers in
developed countries have enjoyed. This confirms that improper reading instructions has contributed significantly to the reading crisis among Indonesian students. Therefore, to increase students’ mastery of basic reading
skills in the future, teachers might need special training in how to teach reading effectively.
The second cause is the cultural factor overemphasizing on oral communication.
Historically, Indonesian culture was not oriented towards written
communication. Ancient writings discovered in various regions of Indonesia are
dominated by religious texts, not scientific records. By tradition, those entitled
to read the texts are merely religious leaders, i.e., priests or monks. Laypersons
are supposed to study the texts only by listening to sermons or talks. As a
result, community members become accustomed only to verbal communication. Such
tradition still occurs in various forms of activity to this day. That is why,
reading to learn, functional reading, let alone reading for pleasure are
unfamiliar activity for most Indonesians. At schools, including at the primary
level, many teachers unconsciously feel more comfortable to use the lecture
method in their classroom. If we want to improve our national education,
transforming our oral tradition to literacy is highly necessary.
The third cause is the learning approach that directs the students to master
the art of passing an examination, particularly the national exam. This tendency
makes teachers prioritize the completion of all teaching material in which
students merely listen to the explanations, take notes or summarize the
material, and then memorize them. As a result, students are not given the
opportunity for pleasure reading and are not assigned reading to learn. many
teachers even feel that applying the Minister of Education and Culture
Regulation No. 23 of 2015, which requires all students to read 15 minutes before a class begins, will only
reduce the time to complete the 'targeted’ teaching material. Concerning this,
the elimination of the national exam since 2020 as an effort to realize the
policy of “Learning Free” by the Minister of Education
and Culture Nadiem Makarim opens the way to increase
opportunities for students to increase their reading skills mastery and
interest.
The next cause is poor reading facilities and infrastructure. Up to now, school
libraries' development and the provision of books have not been a priority. It has
long been a public secret that most schools in remote areas do not have
adequate libraries. Even school libraries in big cities are also not well
managed. The book collection tends to consist of textbooks only. Books that
support reading for pleasure are very limited. Even if such books exist, most
are old-fashioned and worn-out publications. How can we expect such facilities
can foster students’ interest in reading which can grow only if they are
facilitated by various interesting books they can grab at any time? Fayose’s (2003) study revealed that
adolescents in Nigeria did not read for pleasure because they could not find interesting
books. The majority (85%) of the adolescents studied stated that they did not
visit the library because the existing book collection did not meet their
interests.
The
fifth is technological misuse. Because learning tends to be directed towards
exams (the third cause above), and the exam questions are dominated by 'objective
tests', students feel memorizing the main points of the subjects is sufficient. To
get the main points, reading the textbooks is not necessary because accessing the very brief summaries available on the Internet is more practical and convenient. Such a
habit of merely reading the summaries from the Internet will surely cause
two fatal losses in terms of reading. First, the students become accustomed to
getting things instantly and easily and this makes them impatient to read deeply,
especially long and dense (complex) printed texts. Second, because they prefer
simple and short texts, they often do not care about the validity and quality
of the text they read. As a result, their ability to read critically is
decreasing. (No wonder why 65% of Indonesians are easily fooled by
fake news).
Finally,
students’ reading development lacks family support. As mentioned earlier, reading
interest development should ideally start by reading stories to children when
they begin to master the verbal language. Then, when they are able to read
independently (in grade 2 or 3), facilitating them with lots of interesting
books is highly necessary. However, many parents in Indonesia still ignore
this. Additionally, some parents even still hold the view that reading is not
important. As a result, although they have money, buying books is considered
unnecessary.
This article identifies six causes of the reading crisis among Indonesian students. Such identification is very essential because our familiarity with the causes can help us solve the crisis. The best strategy to avoid the reading crisis is by reducing and eliminating these causes. *****
You might be also interested to read Strategies to Solve Indonesian Students’ Reading Crisis
Do you have personal experience concerning reading interest and reading skills development? We’d like to hear from you. Please write your views or feedback in the comments section below.
The Indonesian version of this article could be accessed here.
Author: Parlindungan Pardede (parlin@weedutap.com)
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