Deconstructing RI's impressive literacy rate

Indonesia celebrates International Literacy Day on Tuesday, with figures suggesting that significant progress has been achieved in this field. Ignas Kleden takes a deeper look at the figures.

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro proudly told a television interviewer Monday that Indonesia's illiteracy rate has been significantly reduced.

Only 13 percent, or less than 25 million, of Indonesia's 195 million people need to be taught to read and write.

The figure is quite impressive. Now let us examine what this figure implies, or rather, conceals.

For the purpose of this discussion let me differentiate the three types of literacy.

First, there are those who are technically literate, but functionally and culturally illiterate. These people have been trained to read and write, but due to a lack of reading material they have no opportunity to practice their reading ability, let alone their writing skills. They are technically literate, but their literacy has no function in their everyday life and they are practically illiterate.

Second, those who are technically and functionally literate but culturally illiterate. These are people who are able to read and write, and use their reading ability to obtain necessary information, but are unaccustomed to communicating and expressing themselves in writing.

There are a lot of people who read newspapers to look for employment, to find information they need, and perhaps amuse themselves with some news and short stories. What is lacking however, is the habit and the need to read and write. This is discernible in the number of letters one writes in a year, or the need to document one's life experiences in written form, or the amount of money one spends on new books in one month.

Third, those who are technically, functionally and culturally literate. These are people for whom the need for oral expression and oral communication is no greater than the need for written communication and written expression. One of the essential differences between talking and writing is that the first is spontaneous, fleeting, temporary and dependent upon gesticulation, whereas the second takes more thought and is stable, permanent and autonomous.

Writing takes more thought because there is no immediate communication between reader and author, which would otherwise enable discussion to clarify possible misunderstanding. It is also autonomous because the text speaks for itself.

The personal diary of the late Ahmad Wahib, for example, which contained his philosophical meditations and theological reflections, turned out to become a subject of theological and political discussion among Indonesian intellectuals.

We can safely assume that, had the young Moslem intellectual known that his diary would be published, read and publicly discussed, he would have composed it differently. His writings are now discussed in a way that the author probably never would have imagined.

I would argue that in Indonesia's case, the main achievement attained so far is the introduction and the dissemination of technical and functional literacy.

Children have to read school books as a function in education. Likewise, bookkeepers keep written records of their companies' incomes and expenditures. An engineer who has to build a new engine needs to read the instruction book in order to know the construction of the engine concerned. Reading and writing are a function one has to perform in order to attain one's particular goal.

Cultural literacy in Indonesia, however, is quite underdeveloped. The number of book titles published in Indonesia annually is pronouncedly miserable. Figures which have been published by newspapers are: an average of 2,400 titles per year in Indonesia, 4,000 in Malaysia, 8,000 in Thailand, 7,500 in Australia, 43,000 in South Korea and 44,000 in Japan (Kompas, May 18, 1995).

The reading habits of the huge population of Indonesia are even poorer when one considers that less than 5,000 copies of a title is sold each year.

One can only hope there are more readers of each book than there are actual buyers. The usual ratio for a newspaper is 10 to 1 (one newspaper is read by 10 people).

This ratio, however, is not applicable to books for a variety of reasons. In academe, books are differentiated into three categories: required, recommended, and general knowledge.

In order for books to become part of general knowledge, there should be a high rate of cultural literacy. This type of literacy is not yet reflected in the 13 percent illiteracy rate, a rate we are so happy to accept.

The writer is a sociologist working with the SPES Research Foundation, Jakarta.