MALAKA, EAST NUSA TENGGARA — In an effort to increase the reading interest of school children in Malaka Regency, East Nusa Tenggara, Dompet Dhuafa together with PT Bank BTPN Tbk again collaborated, presenting the Ceruk Ilmu Program. On Monday (11/11/2024), Dompet Dhuafa together with PT Bank BTPN Tbk launched this program in four schools, namely MI Al-Qadr Betun, MTS Al-Qadr Betun, SD Inpres Betun, and SMPN Kletek.
The Ceruk Ilmu program is a program initiated by Great Edunesia (Dompet Dhuafa’s program partner in education) to improve the culture of literacy for school-age children. The cooperation between Dompet Dhuafa and BTPN in this program has been established for several years by targeting schools in remote areas.
The selection of Malacca Regency as the location of this program is due to the high dropout rate in recent years. Hopefully, with the Ceruk Ilmu Program, students’ interest in learning can increase and the dropout rate can be reduced. According to data from the Education, Youth and Sports Office of Malacca Regency in 2021, school dropouts in Malacca Regency are dominated by education levels from elementary, junior high, and high school levels. This dropout problem can be an obstacle in the development of human development.
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As reading support for students at the primary and secondary education (dikdasmen) levels in the four schools, the two parties donated a total of 772 varied reading books. The books are not textbooks, but books with other categories.
For the elementary level, the books given were books about professional biographies, illustrated reading books, children’s encyclopedia books, fable story books, Prophet story books, character biography books and science story books and many others.
While the category of books given to students at the junior high school / MTs level, namely in the form of novel books, biography books of national and international figures, science books, and self-development books. These books are expected to enrich the knowledge and interest in reading for students.
The books, along with the shelves and puzzle rugs provided, were then placed in the corner of the classroom by the school.
In addition, there are also reading books for teachers, in the form of how to teach creatively and build a growth mindset. In addition to providing books, Dompet Dhuafa also organized a seminar entitled “Building a Literacy Culture” for teachers from the four schools. This training aims to equip teachers with skills in creating a culture of literacy in schools.
“Creating a culture of literacy in a community or a school is not enough to just give them books. In fact, that is only a small part of it. More important than that is building a literacy paradigm, especially for teachers. That way, the teachers can then pass it on to their students,” explained Asep Ihsanuddin, presenter of the seminar ‘Building a Culture of Literacy’.
Therefore, training in order to build a culture of literacy is very important, following the distribution of a number of reading books to schools.
Hasairi Arnas, Digital Fundraising Dompet Dhuafa in his speech said that the collaboration between Dompet Dhuafa and BTPN through the Ceruk Ilmu program hopes to have a positive impact on improving the quality of education in Malacca Regency.
“With this program, it is hoped that students’ interest in reading will increase and ultimately have an impact on improving learning achievement,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Suryanti, Principal of MTs Al Qadr, Betun, welcomed this assistance. She admitted that the availability of books at her school is still minimal. Because for procurement, the school only relies on funds from BOS. It was only possible to buy a few of them. Meanwhile, there are currently 58 students. He also said that the last book procurement was two years ago. In fact, the students have started to have a fairly high interest in reading, as well as the teachers.
“The school has a high enthusiasm for literacy. Every teacher is instilled to do reading activities with students every day,” said the teacher who teaches Civics and Social Studies in Grade 8.
According to Suryani, the enthusiasm increased due to a habit pattern that is consistently applied every day at school, namely the 15-minute reading program. This was obtained from one of the interventions by Dompet Dhuafa’s Indonesian Literacy School (SLI) teachers who visited MTs Al Qadr a few years ago.
The books owned by MTs Al Qadr are usually stored in a cupboard that is integrated with the laboratory room. In addition, some books are also placed in the corners of the class as a form of the reading corner program that was once initiated by one of the SLI teachers.
“Hopefully with this, it can help increase children’s interest in reading. Not only writing and reading, but also how to analyze, convey it back and apply the values,” he concluded. (Dompet Dhuafa)
Text and photo: Riza Muthohar
Editor: Dhika