Reuniting Malin Kundang and Artificial Intelligence

Surabaya (ANTARA) - “Sir, why should we study Malin Kundang? We all already know the story.” The words slipped out lightly from a back bench in a year-seven classroom at a junior secondary school (SMP). There was no mocking tone, nothing curt about it. It was simply an honest question born of the worldview of a generation raised on social media and, now, artificial intelligence (AI).

That simple question is in fact exposing a massive cultural shift taking place in Indonesian classrooms. The generation now sitting in school is not one lacking in stories. Rather, they are submerged in an ocean of global narratives.

Within hours, their fingertips can skip across dozens of short video clips, consume foreign animated series, and even converse with AI platforms capable of answering a myriad of questions in an instant.

Literature and AI

In many classrooms, the teaching of local literature frequently becomes trapped in mechanical routine. Pupils are asked to read texts in their textbooks, identify characters and plot, note down moral messages to memorise for examinations, and then close their books when the school bell rings.

Literature learning has shifted from an experience that should be internalised into a mere curricular obligation that simply needs to be completed. What is left behind in the end is only a number on a report card that they call a score, not the values of character that settle deep in the heart.