Jakarta, IO – National Library (Perpusnas) head Muhammad Syarif Bando said low literacy leads to poor mastery of knowledge and is one of the factors causing poverty in a certain group or region.
“The cause of structural poverty is limited access to knowledge. Lack of skills,” said Syarif, reported Merdeka, Wednesday (5/4).
Syarif explained that there are four factors that cause poverty. First, poor mastery of knowledge, lack of skills and innovation, limited access to capital, and culture of laziness.
Syarif pointed out that the cause of low literacy is the weak reading culture in Indonesia. In fact, he said UNESCO has recommended that a person reads at least three new books per year. In Indonesia, Syarif lamented, even a book is not necessarily finished.
In his view, there is still room for improvement in the dissemination of books from the government to the people. He recounted that when he was on official trips to several regions in Sulawesi the local government did not have budget even to print books, let alone buy books.
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According to Syarif, this is why the locally generated income (PAD) of 514 regencies/municipalities in Indonesia is only Rp310.16 trillion while the expenditure reaches Rp1,115 trillion. According to him, equitable access to literacy should be an aspect that needs to be urgently improved. (un)