Literacy problems are pretty serious in Indonesia. According to the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the OECD, Indonesia’s literacy level was still very low or at 62 ranks of 70 countries in 2015.
Faculty of Psychology UGM’s Center for Life Span Development (CLSD) has recently conducted literacy enhancement of primary school students through school ecosystem creation. The event running on Friday (23/8) at the Faculty of Psychology UGM involved 60 teachers from Sleman regency in Yogyakarta.
“We equip the school children with the concept of development stimulation. The teachers are asked to practise various methods of interactive reading that has empirically proven to stimulate child literacy development,” said Dr. Arum Febriani, M.A, Head of CLSD, in a press release sent on Wednesday (28/8).
According to Arum, the event was done to enhance teacher capacity in order that they can educate their students. “We give exercise materials that include read aloud, paired reading, and reader’s theater,” she explained.
The event went with descriptions by psychology resource persons, including T. Novi Poespita Candra, M.Si., Ph.D., Psikolog, Dian Mufitasari, S.Psi., M.Psi., Psikolog, and S. B. Suryo Buwono, S.Psi.
According to Arum, the literacy enhancement event attracted the interest of teachers, as proven by the 120 people that had applied to the event. Being still a pilot project, however, the programme could only accommodate half of the applicants. “In the future we want the event to sustain with a wider range of scope,” she added.