Permanency of Literacy in Indonesia

In Indonesia, as in other developing countries, one of the main political and educational goals is to obtain a minimum six years education for all children. The basic aim is to achieve universal literacy. Indeed, recent data suggest that most, perhaps 95% or more, children do enroll in some form of primary school, at least in the more populated and accessible areas of Indonesia. Within these areas, however, less than 50% of the children who enroll in grade one actually graduate from grade six (unpublished data of Badan Pengembangan Pendidikan). It may be assumed that any child dropping out of grade one or two will have learned so little of literacy skills that they remain, in effect, illiterate. However for the bulk of children dropping out in grades three to six, the fate is less clear. The assumption generally accepted by UNESCO is that a four year minimum schooling is required for literacy skills to be maintained after the child leaves school (UNESCO, 1949). Before that time, such skills as have been learned are rapidly lost. This assumption indeed concurs with the psychological of retention (Kimble, 1961). Such a model would also suggest that the loss follows a curvilinear pattern, with maximum loss occurring immediately after cessation of learning. The Indonesian government has generally accepted that a rapid loss of skills occurs after dropout. The high dropout rate is described in the five year

Literacy · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Sociology · Education Systems and Policy · Educational Methods and Media Use · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare · Psychology

• Literacy in Indonesia

  Open Access•Peter H Lowenberg•Annual Review of Applied…•1983

  Add to list

• Indigenous education and literacy in the third world

  Open Access•Daniel A Wagner•New Directions for Child and…•1983

  Add to list

• Literacy skill retention in adult students in developing countries

  Open Access•John P Comings•International Journal of…•1995

  Add to list