INDONESIA-MOBILE LIBRARY A man, a horse and a collection of books: mobile library in remote Indonesia encourages children to read

Record ID: 135517

  • Title: INDONESIA-MOBILE LIBRARY A man, a horse and a collection of books: mobile library in remote Indonesia encourages children to read
  • Date: 20th October 2015
  • Summary: PURBALINGGA, CENTRAL JAVA PROVINCE, INDONESIA (RECENT - OCTOBER 6, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF INDONESIAN VILLAGER AND "HORSE LIBRARY" OWNER, RIDWAN SURURI, CARRYING PILES OF BOOKS AND PUTTING THEM ON FLOOR SURURI PUTTING A WOODEN BOOKS RACK ON THE BACK OF HIS FAVOURITE HORSE, LUNA SURURI PUTTING BOOKS INTO BOOK RACK (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) INDONESIAN VILLAGER AND "H
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Indonesia
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8I6KOKJO73VLMNPYVES6DOJYR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: In a rural area on the foot of Indonesia's active stratovolcano Mount Slamet, 42-year-old Ridwan Sururi and his favourite horse Luna travel between schools carrying a collection of children's books.
    Sururi, who prefers to go by the name "Ruri", spends three days a week leading Luna along the dirt tracks in this part of Indonesia's Central Java Province. His service - a mobile library known locally as the "horse library" - is free and his contribution entirely voluntary.
    The aim is to encourage local children to read, a social contribution Ruri believes is vital in the remote area that has limited access to reading materials.
    Library facilities are still rare in the area, Ruri said, with children having to travel around an hour to a nearby town to visit a library. Schools also do not tend to have resources outside the basic curriculum, Ruri added. Televisions were common in the area, a local reporter who visited the village said.
    "The purpose of this library is to encourage reading. The reason why I used the horse is because, in my opinion, the horse is what attracts children," Ruri said.
    "Without realising, their interest in reading will grow. So, it is more convenient for them because we come to them," he added.
    Indonesia's literacy levels are high, however, data released in 2012 from the Statistics Central Agency (BPS) showed that almost 92 percent of the population aged 10 years and over were more interested in watching television.
    The British Council has also said reading interests remain "very low", due to inadequate library systems, minimal publications, and a TV-dependent generation.
    Ruri currently has as many as 1,000 books in his possession, all of which have been given to him by friends or donors.
    Setting up in schools' football fields or playgrounds he rests on Luna's back armed with a list of names and book titles to record who has what.
    The children, who are usually aged between seven and 12-years-old, say they are grateful for these visits.
    "I am very delighted with this horse library. Because it helps me to gain knowledge and helps me with my school work," said Febriyan Eko Wiyanto before joining his Koran reading class.
    "There is absolutely no charge for this, I borrow the books for free, and I hope the book collection will grow and the children in this village will read more and be clever," added student Neng Suryani.
    In Jakarta, Director of Education and Society at the British Council Teresa Birsk said Indonesia's problem was not child literacy levels, but that they were not adequately engaging in the reading material.
    "So I don't think there's a problem there for Indonesia, I think the government has really had a lot of success in literacy. Perhaps in terms of the critical literacy, that's a different thing. As I mentioned earlier, engaging students to think about the text, to engage with the text, that's where there are challenges. But again if recent research shows that Indonesians read more than people do in Japan, they spend more hours a week reading then people do in Korea, in Taiwan, in the U.K. So I think maybe it's the nature of the material, and encouraging young people to enjoy the material," she said.
    With Ruri and Luna's mobile library adding a little flair to reading, they might be able to encourage a few more children to pick up a book.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register