A New Chapter: #Literaction

Do you have the chance to study for at least nine years in a formal school?

Can you read? Can you read the data? Can you actually analyze data? Can you turn data into information?

I don't think that you (re: reader) will answer with so many “no” questions above. I believe that entering this article means that you already have enough privilege to have many “yes” to your answers. Well, why suddenly do I turn myself to open up a topic about this issue?

Simply because I feel like when we talk about privilege, the most prestigious one is when you are able to read. When your literacy level is enough to compete with what the world envisions in the future, but do we all have that privilege?

In 2020, I did my internship to complete my bachelor's at a small institution that works closely with those people who don’t have the privilege that I talked about in this article. In Indonesia, we have two different schools, which are formal and non-formal. Formal education takes place in schools, training institutions, and colleges and universities. Also, it has clearly defined curricula and rules for certification. Non-formal education, on the other hand, takes place mostly outside formal educational systems and is voluntary. The institution of the nonformal school called “Pusat Kegiatan Belajar Masyarakat,” or Society Learning Center, specifically helps those people unprivileged to get a formal education and aims to push the number of illiterate cases.

The idea is pretty simple: you will get an education that is simpler and shorter than the formal one and take the Equivalency Examination to get a similar degree and certificate as what you got in formal education.

It was a life-changing experience for me during my internship, and I visited one of the buildings that was located across the river that required us to take a small boat to get there. What is even surprising for me is that the students are elder people. They do not just want to get a degree, but they really want to be able to read. The reason is various: they want to speak the same language as their children, they want to get a decent job, they want to be able to read the most recent information on the internet, and maybe just because they feel like there is no “late” when you want to “start.”

The amount of effort done by the people who work within the institution and the students immaculately amazed me. I feel like there are so many things that are unseen in this world just because it is buried by the prestige of privilege that we hold. That is what makes me feel like the privileged one who got a better and decent education since I was a kid; I need to do something about it.

After I finished my internship, I worked on the report talking about how this institution correlates with my major (International Relations) work to eradicate the number of illiterate cases, which is directly connected with what the world leaders associated with the United Nations want to achieve, which is the Sustainable Development Goal, specifically number 4: Quality Education. Aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Community empowerment institutions that have been active so far in
addressing the problem of illiteracy in Indonesia, namely the Center for Community Learning Activities (PKBM), which is a place where all community learning activities are aimed at increasing knowledge skills, which are managed and organized by the community itself. PKBM is an institution that empowers people to be more independent in meeting their needs, including in terms of increasing their income. The empowerment carried out by this institution for the community is more about the economic aspect, where the community is trained and invited to be more sensitive to economic developments that are increasingly varied and advanced.

This institution not only tries to educate illiterate people to become literate but also trains the soft skills and hard skills of the people so they don’t always rely on existing jobs around them but can utilize existing resources to open businesses and even new jobs for others. The role of this institution in community empowerment is an effort to improve literacy and increase the economic level, and the competitiveness of inclusive human resources can be said to be effective.

Then, in 2020, after the pandemic cases turned a bit slow. I started to think further about how can I turn my thoughts into reality. Helping many people to become privileged by providing a platform like the institution where I have my internship.

I created a proposal called “belum terlambat.id” to compete in one of the programs initiated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Indonesia called the Program Pertukaran Antar Negara. I didn’t win the selection process, but here I would like to tell you what is inside my initiative.

Starting from my interest as a student of International Relations in the international world and my responsibility as a young future leader for the Republic of Indonesia. I thought about how to make everyone’s dream come true, namely to live in the happiest country. A country can be said to have a level of happiness and welfare of the population that can be assessed using various methods and terms. In this case, I found that Norway is the happiest and most prosperous country in the world, and many people agree that this is because the country is ranked 1st in the Health Development Index (HDI) or what we know as the Human Development Index (IPM). Therefore, I want to create an action that can bring us even closer to the success of the HDI. Then, I try to initiate a movement called belum terlambat.id to form a specific activity or program that will support one aspect of the progress of a country’s HDI.

Belum terlambat.id is a movement aimed at reducing illiteracy and increasing the competitiveness of human resources in West Kalimantan through volunteer activities teaching basic reading education and supporting creative economy education.

The fact that the illiteracy rate in Indonesian society is quite high and troubling. In West Kalimantan, the vulnerable population aged 15–45 years and over are illiterate or unable to read, according to 2019 data, which is 26.05%. This figure certainly affects the problem of social inequality towards education in Indonesia and affects competition in employment, which is becoming unhealthy. Occupying the third highest position of 34 provinces in Indonesia.

In this case, it is important to know that the literacy rate in society is one aspect of the Human Development Index (IPM). What we need to balance the world’s increasingly aggressive progress is to change the system where the percentage of workers who work normally must be smaller when compared to the ideators and innovators. Bringing West Kalimantan’s Human Development Index (IPM) data in 2019, which is 67.65%, we all agree that there needs to be progress every year. It is centered on young people because they are the pillars of the future and are the triggers for the development of the world. There needs to be a place for them to develop themselves through more varied paths and have unique relevance.

I didn’t win, but I won’t stop trying to work on it. From 2020 until 2023, I worked silently on the progress to open up any possibilities so that I could create an impact in this related field. I tried to search for any program supported by the government, any way to reach the vision I dreamt of.

2023, from all of the possibilities. I am honored to start a foundation for non-formal education called Amor Matris Indonesia*, located in my hometown, a sub-district in Kalimantan Barat called Melawi, as one of the semi-rural places in Indonesia. We received so much support from the government in 2023. Starting with a direct financial fund that can occupy the development of more than 400 people to get a decent education for three years. We also receive in-kind support such as soft-skill development facilities, books, computers, television, and many other things.

The program from Amor Matris Indonesia will be focusing on two things at the start of it.

1. Social Library (offline and online) that provides reading materials needed by the community as a place for organizing reading and learning skills development. We are enriched with more than 500 titles of physical books and are searching for possibilities to establish an online platform in the future as well.
2. High School Equivalency Examination which is the equality education for high school/MA equivalent students. This program aims to target the people who don’t have the resources to get into formal education in rural areas and those who didn’t finish their formal education.

The main event that we are currently having is:

• Functional Equivalence Stage Learning
  Teaching is carried out by teaching volunteers to provide education to the illiterate community in the form of basic learning, such as recognizing letters, spelling, and knowing words.
• Independent Business Equality Stage Learning (KUM)
  Follow-up teaching from Functional Equality, where young volunteers will educate illiterate people in the form of advanced learning, namely reading and writing. As well as an introduction to the development of the skills of teaching participants.
• Learning the Skills Innovation stage
  This stage is not an advanced stage but an optional stage where young volunteers who master specific areas according to the skills they want to hone will be taught to teaching participants so that in the future, it is possible to develop them into businesses (e.g., sewing, makeup, cooking, etc.).

Our values are Empowering (Encouraging or Nurturing), in implementing the program, all stakeholders will always push toward positive progress and protect those who need it; Purposive (Have a Purpose), in the implementation of the program, the activities carried out will always have a goal and focus on the process of achieving that goal; and Relevant (Have Relevancy), activities carried out by the organization will always adjust and prioritize common interests and have relevance to what is needed by the surroundings.

As the founder and operating director of the institution, I am glad that I can start the operation this year with the help of many stakeholders. While the vision of this program will still be the same as what I envision in life, “Make it Relevant.” With this, I hope that we can create the most relevant environment and lifestyle that is decent, equal, and inclusive for all. In the future, I hope that there are people who also have a similar vision and want to work with our platform to make a sustainable impact and advance facilities for those who need it.

Salam Literasi!

#Literaction

*advocation-purpose brand name