Bogor student wins reading contest
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta
Ten-year-old Rizky Muharom is a regular elementary school student from Bogor, West Java. But he can turn himself into an old man, a woman or even an animal when reading a story.
The boy won first prize on Saturday in a story reading contest for elementary school students across Greater Jakarta. The contest was organized by the Language Center of the Ministry of National Education.
Rizky, a student at state elementary school SDN Pengadilan 3, beat out 37 other contestants taking part in the event, which was held for the first time in connection with National Children's Day on July 23 and the month-long Language and Literature campaign.
Nabila Meisya Hijriani Siregar, 10, a student at SD Pulo Gebang 01 in East Jakarta, won second place, while third place went to Siti Marliani, 9, a student at private school Yayasan Bunda in Jakarta.
Abdul Rozak Zaidan, the organizer of the Language and Literature campaign, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday the nine judges rated the children on their enunciation and their ability to give individual voices to each of the characters in the stories they read.
"The majority of Indonesians read very little because they have been accustomed to an oral tradition since early age .... The contest was aimed at improving the reading habit," said Rozak, who is also the head of the Language Center's language and literature development division.
He added that the emergence of sophisticated audio-visual games had led children to read even less than usual.
A 1997 International Education Assessment Test found that the reading and writing ability of Indonesian elementary school students was only 36 percent, placing Indonesia near the very bottom of the list of the countries ranked, with only Venezuela scoring lower at 33.9 percent.
"It is time for us to encourage our children to read more. But this is not only the task of teachers, but also of parents," Rozak said.
Rizky received Rp 1.75 million (US$194.44) for winning the contest, while the second-place finisher took home Rp 1.5 million and the third-place finisher Rp 1.25 million. Each of the three children also received a trophy, a certificate and books for their respective schools worth Rp 750,000.
Contest organizer Elia Iswati said the 38 participants came from 23 elementary schools in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok and Bekasi. She said more students did not take part because there was not enough time to organize the contest.
"We hope there will be more participants in the future," she said, adding that the contest would become an annual event.