Revitalizing literature in schools

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

A great many people have been complaining about the chaos surrounding the teaching of literature in our schools, but only a few of them have actually been doing anything to remedy the situation, people like renowned poet Taufiq Ismail.

The 68-year-old poet has won commendations for his efforts to improve the teaching of literature. Last week, he received an honorary doctorate degree from Yogyakarta State University (UNY) for his efforts.

Born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, on June 25, 1935, Taufik is a veterinarian by training. He has been campaigning for reform in the teaching of literature since 1962.

In the early 1990s he had to quit his studies at the American University's Language and Literature School in Cairo, Egypt, due to the Gulf War.

Now a senior editor of Horison literary monthly, Taufiq says that literature has been "marginalized" in the Indonesian school curriculum and the public has largely lost interest in it.

He believes that the root of the problem is the lack of assignments on literature for students, and the fact that literature receives an insignificant time allotment compared to other subjects.

"Literature teaching in our high schools has been set aside in favor of grammar," he said.

He reckons that during the Dutch colonial times, a student was assigned an average of 25 literary works to read in the course of his three years in high school, or Algemeene Middelbare School (AMS) as high school was known then.

"Today, the number has dropped to zero," Taufiq said in his acceptance address.

Similarly, written assignments have plummeted from 36 a year during under the AMS system to six in today's high schools.

"High school students nowadays are simply taught knowledge about literature but not how to enjoy the pleasure of reading literary works," Taufiq said, quoting a survey he conducted in 1997 involving students in 13 countries.

The survey, which was part of his study into whether Indonesians were suffering from "reading myopia" and "writing lameness", revealed that when finishing their four years of study in high school, students in the U.S. had read 4,824 pages of literary works, while students in Malaysia had written 2,016 quarto-sized pages upon finishing high school.

"The essence of literature teaching -- reading works of literature -- has been missing here for over 60 years, or since the last graduates of the AMS system emerged in 1942," said Taufiq, who was fired as a civil servant in 1964 for signing the Manifesto Kebudayaan, a cultural petition critical of the government.

He said that until 60 years ago, the quality of Indonesian students from the AMS was on a par with that of high school students in the U.S. and Europe today.

Taufik insisted that Indonesia should change the way it looks at how schools should teach literature.

"We have been very, very late in diagnosing the disease and have also been very, very, very late in providing the therapy," he said.

The findings of the survey managed to convince then minister of education and culture Wardiman Djojonegoro of the need for a new paradigm in the teaching of literature.

The new paradigm basically involved making the reading of literature a pleasure; obliging students to read the complete work -- not just excerpts. Promoting good writing and knowledge about literature was the second priority.

Through Horison, Taufik proposed an action plan aimed at improving public appreciation of literature to be implemented between 1996 and 2004.

The plan includes the distribution of a Horison supplement called Kakilangit that features the works and biographies of leading writers. As part of the action plan, 9,000 copies of Horison's 12,000 monthly print run are distributed to 4,500 state-run high schools across Indonesia at the government's expense.

Other programs involve the holding of workshops on reading, writing and understanding literature for teachers, as well as a writing contest for high school teachers.

"We also established 12 workshops titled Sanggar Sastra Siswa Indonesia (Indonesian Students Workshop) in 2002 in 12 cities," said Taufiq.

Many of Taufiq's poems have been sung by famous singers, such as Bimbo Group, Chrisye and Ian Antono. He has been the recipient numerous awards, including the Art Award from the Indonesian government (1970), Cultural Visit Award from the Australian government (1977), South East Asia Write Award from the Kingdom of Thailand (1994), and the Poet of Nusantara Award from Johor State, Malaysia (1999).

Taufik says his campaign to promote literature in schools has brought about encouraging results although it will require more concerted efforts to make the dream come true.

"Hopefully, our children in the future will no longer suffer from reading myopia and writing lameness like their parents," said Taufiq.