In 2018 36.22 per cent of elementary schools in Indonesia did not have libraries, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture.

That was the case until recently at SDN 173 / V Tanjung Benanak in Tanjung Jabung Barat Regency, Jambi, which went 14 years without a dedicated library.

“We just didn’t think about the need for a school library, with our limited classrooms and absence of reading materials,” said Kartika Isnaini, a teacher at the school.

All that changed in 2011, when Tanoto Foundation visited the school as part of a reading campaign. After getting a taste of what was possible, the teachers were inspired to do more.

Faced with a limited budget, the principal and teachers brainstormed ideas to get new books for the school.

They began by meeting the local village head, who agreed to loan books from the village library to the school for a semester at a time.

The school set aside four per cent of its budget to buy books, and also encouraged alumni and parents to donate.

As a result of this hard work the school received around 400 books each semester, giving students ample reading choices and beginning to instill a love of literature among the pupils.

Books were distributed in classrooms, but the problem was that there was still no dedicated home for them. The teachers decided to transform a disused bathroom into a library but, at just 2×3 metres, space was extremely limited.

“The library was a small room, but it was successful in initiating reading culture among the students,” Kartika shared.

Hearing about the hard work the school had undertaken to improve reading among students, Tanoto Foundation offered to help by constructing a new, fully-furnished 36 meter square library for the school, and equipping it with books.

Kartika now makes it a point for her classes to visit the library twice a week, so that students are constantly exposed to literature.

The school also encourages students to understand what they are reading, through book reviews, story retelling sessions or drawing the book characters on posters, she said.

Third-grade students are also asked to create their own storybooks as school projects, with guidance from the teachers. Books created in this way are stored in either the classroom reading corner, or in the school library.

“It turns out that the students’ books also attract other students to read them,” Kartika said.

A daily reading campaign was also launched at the school in 2014, which was further bolstered by the 15-minute national reading policy announced by the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The teachers’ efforts and the new school library have helped improve the children’s literacy skills, with the students’ reading journals showing that they read about two to three books a week.

In Indonesia, three out of 10 Indonesian children below five years old suffer from developmental delays – both physically and mentally.

According to a primary health care survey conducted by the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the stunting rate in Indonesia is 30.8 per cent.

Taking into consideration that the global childhood stunting rate (for children under five years old) is about 23 per cent, Indonesia’s stunting figure is quite high, and there is an obvious need to reduce and prevent stunting.

With the improvement of early childhood development and education being one of the key focus areas for Tanoto Foundation, the Foundation recently organised a training session centered on the focus on the reduction and prevention of stunting in Indonesia.

The session, organized in collaboration with the Office of the Presidential Staff (KSP) and the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), was held in Cianjur, West Java from November 8 to 9.

More than 500 health care volunteers from Maternal and Child Health Centres (Posyandu) in Cianjur attended the session.

The volunteers, who are viewed as ambassadors for child stunting prevention, were trained in how to provide advice to Indonesian mothers about the important steps they have to take in preventing stunting in their children. Topics covered include exclusive breastfeeding, maternal nutrition during pregnancy, child nutrition, and sanitation.

Following the training, these ambassadors are expected to disseminate the knowledge they receive to their surrounding communities.

“One of our commitments is to support early childhood education and development holistically in an integrative way. Our target is to contribute to the reduction in stunting rates in Indonesia to less than 20 per cent by 2030.”

Satrijo Tanudjojo, Global CEO Tanoto Foundation.

In addition, Tanoto Foundation has already established partnerships with four non-government organisations (NGOs), namely Save The Children, Indonesia Heritage Foundation, Kopernik and Lazismu, to run stunting prevention programs in the community.

“Starting in 2018, Tanoto Foundation’s strategy to prevent and reduce stunting is in line with our intention to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs, specifically Goal Target 2.2 (reduce malnutrition in toddlers by providing nutritious food and health services) and Goal Target 4.2 (increase percentage of children from low-income families who are under the age of six to have access to quality early childhood development so that they are ready for primary education).”

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“For this reason, we welcome partnerships with parties who have the same mission in reducing and preventing stunting,” Satrijo Tanudjojo added.

Dewi looks serious holding a piece of paper. He looks at every word before her. A moment later, she smiles and says, “Done.”

Ibu Santi, Dewi’s teacher who sits in front of her immediately clicks the stopwatch in her grasp. “One minute two seconds. Very good, Dewi. Now answer these questions on this sheet,” says Ibu Santi, as she hands Dewi a sheet of questions related to the reading she has just done.

Ibu Santi is a teacher a SDN 011 Peranap, Indragiri Hulu in Riau province. SDN 011 Peranap is one of the schools that partners with Tanoto Foundation in implementing a reading ability test called Effective Speed Reading (KEM) for its students.

What is Effective Speed Reading?

Effective Speed Reading (KEM) combines motor skills (eye movement) or visual abilities with one’s cognitive reading skills.

KEM is therefore a combination of one’s average reading speed and accuracy in comprehending the words.

The average reading speed is calculated in words per minute (wpm).

Example:

If Student A reads 70 words in one minute, his reading speed is 70wpm.

Meanwhile, reading comprehension is determined by the number of correct answers from students, divided by the ideal score (the total number of all possible correct answers), multiplied by 100%.

Reading Comprehension = Correct Answers / Ideal Score x 100

Example:

Student B answers three out of four questions correctly, so her reading comprehension is:

3/4 x 100 = 75%

Effective Reading Ability is determined with a combination of both factors.

Standardization of Reading Speed

One person’s KEM with certainly different than that of someone else.  KEM is generally dependent on the level of education one has experienced. However, there are formulas which can be used as references or benchmarks to find out the average KEM a person should have.

Below are the Effective Speed Reading standards, based on level of education.

Education Level	KEM
Elementary /Junior High School Senior High School Graduates Postgraduates Adult (who has not finished school)	200 words per minute 250 words per minute 325 words per minute 400 words per minute 200 words per minute

Some experts even say that children of different grades have varying reading speeds, as listed in the table below:

Grades	KEM
I II III IV V VI	60 – 80 words per minute 90 – 110 words per minute 120 – 140 words per minute 150 – 160 words per minute 170 – 180 words per minute 190 – 200 words per minute

Why KEM?

When this question was asked to several teachers who had used the KEM instrument, the answers were almost unanimous, with teachers stating that the instrument is inexpensive and easy to use for teachers and students.

“The method is simple. I only have to take data from the students. Ask them to read, record the time they take, and then get them to answer questions. Then I just have to input the information in a simple Excel spreadsheet, and the results can be viewed immediately.

“For example, whether a student’s reading fluency is low. As teachers, we just need to follow up based on what we find out,” Ibu Santi explains.

Similarly, Pak Rohim, a teacher who is also using KEM at SDS Permata Andalan Estate Ukui in Pelalawan, Riau, said that he did not face any obstacles in using the tool.

“I just enter the reading duration and the number of correct answers to get the results. We can even change the questions by ourselves if there is a need, and we don’t require special expertise to compute the results,” he said.

Written by: Sasmoyo Hermawan, Training Specialist at Tanoto Foundation