Category: Science & Technology

The National Library of Indonesia is currently providing free access to digital books to the public through the iPusnas online library, academic journal online library, and Nusantara ancient scripts online repository Khastara.

Navisa, a Faculty of Law student at Sriwijaya University, Palembang, said the free digital library service has been of great convenience to her as it allows her her to look up academic resources or journals for assignments or theses without the necessity of visiting a library or returning a physical book to the library.

Alhafsi, a student from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the same university, concurred with Navisa. Besides utilizing campus library resources, he said he has also been able to use resources made available on South Sumatra Library’s online database Diary Sumsel to finish assignments.

Once users register at the online database to access the library’s collection, they can file a request to borrow multiple books at a time, he added. He said that despite its convenience, due to a limited collection, he could not solely rely on the online library and still needed to look up references from offline libraries.

As a literature enthusiast based in Palembang, South Sumatra, Alhafsi urged libraries to provide universal and easy access, frequently update library collections, and invite youth to work in the library to attract more young readers. Cultivating a reading habit

With abundant literature resources, particularly those provided by the National Library, the current issue facing libraries is: attracting the youth to use the digital library or the online repository, as the percentage of visitors remains low despite their being the most digital-literate generation, which can easily access such facilities using their personal gadgets.

According to deputy for resources development at the National Library, Deni Kurniadi, the ongoing library digitization is necessary to cater to the digitally-literate young generation.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the transition to online learning have been a momentum to further embrace information technology and improve the digital library, he added.

Libraries should increase their role to improve the literacy index among children by utilizing digital technology to offer digital library services, besides procuring physical books and reading materials with varied themes, he said. South Sumatra Library head Fitriana said utilization of digital technology has been part of the library’s long-term program, particularly after the province’s literacy index was projected to increase to 20.5 percent upon engagement with the National Library and 17 universities to improve the digital literature system and improve library staff’s competence.

South Sumatra has also launched an online library application called Diary Sumsel on February 2, 2020. Around 2,000 books and kinds of literature on various topics of science, language, applied science, Nusantara fiction stories, novels, health, and agriculture, are included in the application.

The online library system supplements South Sumatra’s 2,443 existing libraries – 45 general libraries, 12 specialized libraries, 36 university libraries, and 2,350 school libraries — registered within the national library registry.

From those libraries, around 106 libraries have received the highest accreditation and around 80 percent of libraries have been equipped with a proper computer facility and internet connection.

To further promote reading habits, the South Sumatra government also established 300 reading corners at public places, such as airports, rail stations, malls, terminals, city parks, and hospitals.

One of the reading corners, the Sungai Ijuk reading corner in Kertapati sub-district, Palembang City, has been equipped with digital facilities to support local children’s studies.

The decision to boost the digital library system and diversify the literature collection is essential to attract youths’ interest in reading and utilizing digital library facilities, and the transition to digital library services is clearly inevitable.

Our current challenge

From Weh Island, the westernmost tip of Sumatra, to Merauke, the easternmost city of Indonesia, the country has recorded varied literacy activity scores among its provinces.

Out of the nation’s 34 provinces, around nine provinces have recorded an average score (index score of 40.01-60.00 percent); 24 provinces, the most in the pool, have recorded a low score (index score of 20.01-40.00 percent); and, one province has recorded a very low score (index score of 0.00-20.00 percent). Not a single province has recorded a high or very high score (index score of above 60.00 percent).

The five provinces that have recorded the highest literacy activity scores are Jakarta (58.16 percent), Yogyakarta (56.20 percent), Riau Islands (54.76 percent), East Kalimantan (46.01 percent), and Bali (44.58 percent).

The three provinces that have recorded the lowest literacy activity scores are Papua (19.90 percent), West Papua (28.85 percent), and East Nusa Tenggara (29.83 percent).

With a literacy activity score of 36.06 percent, South Sumatra province has ranked 17th among Indonesian provinces, and yet, it has been included in provinces with a low score.

The National Library data shows that the aggregate of books possessed by regional libraries currently stands at 22,318,083. If the total books are compared with Indonesia’s total population of around 268 million people, the book-to-people ratio in Indonesia is an abysmal 0.098 per cent. To cultivate and promote the reading habit, the central and regional governments should collaborate to address literacy issues in totality. The governments could start by championing a unified commitment among book writers, publishers, translators, and literacy enthusiasts to improve literacy in the country and ensuring equal distribution of reading materials to alleviate literacy activity score discrepancy.

Indonesian educator Fuad Hasan (in Sutarno, 2003) noted three phases that are necessary to promote the reading habit and improve literacy levels among the population: first ensure reading ability and literacy level, then improve reading proficiency and comprehension of a particular text, and follow it up by nurturing the reading habit.

Indonesian youth and those from the “Generation Z” are the digital-literate generation who face no issues in using technology and keeping up with its development.

To promote reading among them, the authorities have the responsibility of providing literature and reading materials. But, to ensure equal access, those materials must also be provided in their digital forms, either as digital books, audiobooks, or other mediums, to attract the interest of the youth to access digital resources.

Source: Antara News

Personnel from Papua police’s community development task force are assisting 11 construction workers of PT Indo Mulia Baru to heal their trauma following the deaths of their two workmates in a terrorist attack on Sunday.

Papua Police spokesperson Sen. Coms. Ahmad Kamal noted here on Wednesday that the trauma-healing therapy, led by First Inspector Joni Linggi, aimed at helping the 11 survivors overcome their traumas.

The two deceased construction workers, identified as Rionaldo Ratu Roma and Dedi Imam Pamungkas, died in an attack by members of an armed separatist terrorist group operating in the area on Sunday (August 22).

The notorious armed Papuan terrorists launched the deadly attack on PT Indo Mulia Baru’s construction workers engaged in erecting a bridge on Brazza River in Yahukimo District.

The attackers not only killed Roma and Pamungkas but they also set ablaze their bodies and their pickup truck. However, the personnel managed to retrieve their bodies that were then respectively buried in Timika, Papua, and in Surabaya, East Java.

Meanwhile, Head of the Papua Police Criminal Investigation Department Sen. Coms. Faisal Rahmadani disclosed that the armed attackers belonged to the Tenius Gwijangge-led terrorist group. In his earlier press statement, Rahmadani noted that this Tenius Gwijangge-led terrorist group might have used six firearms, including two 5.56-millimeter caliber SS1-V1 rifles.

The two assault rifles that were equipped with Trijicon, or optical sighting devices, may belong to the 423 Infantry Battalion (Airborne) of the Army’s Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), he stated.

“Due to the ‘Trijicon’, the shooters could maintain their precision,” he affirmed, adding that the four other firearms used by the Tenius Gwijangge-led group could not yet be identified.

Members of the terrorist group also attacked several personnel from the Indonesian Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit when they went to the site of the shooting to evacuate the deceased workers, Rahmadani revealed. He noted that four Brimob personnel sustained minor injuries while adding that several construction workers were evacuated to Dekai, the capital of Yahukimo District, for safety reasons.

Papua has been reeling from armed violence over the past few years. In April this year, two teachers were killed by armed Papuan terrorists.

The first killing occurred on April 8, 2021, when several armed attackers opened fire at a kiosk in Julukoma Village, Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District.

The shooting resulted in the death of a Beoga public elementary school teacher, Oktovianus Rayo. After killing Rayo, the armed attackers torched three classrooms at the Beoga public senior high school.

On April 9, 2021, separatist terrorists reportedly shot another teacher, Yonatan Randen, on the chest.

Several villagers attempted to save the junior high school teacher and rushed him to the Beoga public health center, but he succumbed to his injuries.

On April 11, 2021, armed terrorists reportedly torched nine classrooms at the Beoga public junior high school.

Source: Antara News

Transition to face-to-face learning in regions allowed to reopen schools should be conducted by stages, with a blend of online and offline learning systems implemented, public policy expert of Trisakti University Trubus Rahadiansyah stated.

“We could commence the transition to face-to-face learning implemented in stages and blending online and offline learning systems. Pupils, who attended face-to-face learning at schools, should remain under the supervision of parents,” Rahadiansyah stated here, Tuesday.

All levels, including the primary, secondary, and high schools, can reopen following the government’s decision to improve activities restriction enforcement (PPKM) ratings from level 4 to level 3 imposed in a particular region, he noted. Rahadiansyah pointed out that Jakarta’s schools could reopen after the government upgraded the city’s PPKM score from level 4 to level 3, as the city had sufficient vaccination coverage for a relatively safer school opening.

He stated that despite the reopening, school administrators should not neglect their responsibility to enforce health protocols at their schools to prevent them from turning into a COVID-19 infection cluster, particularly after the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant was identified.

“It is easy to declare schools reopened while ordering school administrators to abide by health protocols. What is difficult right now is to implement and supervise health protocol enforcement at schools,” Rahadiansyah stated.

Earlier, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian allowed regions with improved PPKM ratings to level 3 to commence school reopening since August 24.

Included among regions with improved PPKM rating to level 3, the Jakarta authority planned to proceed with the transition to face-to-face learning in the city. Reopened schools would be subject to strict health protocols in place and class attendance capped at 50 percent of the total class capacity.

Source: Antara News

Bank Indonesia (BI) is exploring the cooperation of inter-country quick response (QR) with the central bank of Malaysia, Bank Negara after intensifying similar cooperation with Thailand recently.

“We are sitting together closely with Malaysia,” BI’s Payment System Policy Department Head Filianingsih Hendarta said during an online media briefing here, Monday.

In addition, both countries have conducted some stages, from user acceptance test (UAT) between Indonesia and Malaysia to communication with the payment service provider, bank settlement, and switching company, she informed.

Apart from Malaysia, other ASEAN countries are queuing up to cooperate with Indonesia regarding the cross-border QR, she revealed.

“After ASEAN, one of the countries interested in the cooperation is Saudi Arabia,” she said.

The inter-country QR exploration mirrors BI’s commitment to expanding the utilization of Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS), according to Hendarta.

The QRIS has been successfully adopted by various users as a daily transaction payment standard, she informed.

BI has recorded a total of eight million merchants integrated into QRIS and it has targeted 12 million merchants by the end of 2021.

Source: Antara News

The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) Office in Yogyakarta province and the Sleman district government have launched a mass vaccination program for thousands of students of the Sunan Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School in Sleman, Yogyakarta.

“The first is part of a series of implementations of Mr. President’s directive and the order of the Head of State Intelligence Agency to carry out vaccinations against specific targets by using specific methods,” Chief of the BIN Office in Yogyakarta Brigadier General Dr. Andry Wibowo said at the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School on Thursday.

The specific target of the program was students, and the method used was door-to-door, he informed. The vaccination program was part of a series of programs implemented by the BIN Office in Yogyakarta since some time ago, he said.

“Today (vaccinations will be provided) at the Sunan Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, then house-to-house in the surrounding community. If the activity plan here is (to inoculate) eight thousand students, today we aim for 500 people; (if we do it) two times it will be a thousand. (This is being done) while (we are) waiting for the distribution of vaccines through the State Intelligence Agency channel,” he added.

The BIN Office in Yogyakarta has inoculated 34 thousand students out of a total of 356 thousand students, as well as 10 percent of Indonesian students in Yogyakarta, he informed.

He said that Islamic boarding school students have been prioritized for vaccines because they are covered by two education dimensions, namely the national education dimension of elementary, junior high and high school, and the dimension of education under the Religious Affairs Ministry.

“Islamic boarding schools are part of our education cluster, where there are educators and students. So it is just the matter of title. In middle and high schools, there are students, but here, the (Islamic boarding schools) students study in special chambers, and general education just reinforces the religious values,” he said.

Head of the COVID-19 task force at Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School, Azka Syabana said that Islamic boarding schools were very grateful and welcomed the vaccination program hosted by State Intelligence Agency, as it was reviewed by President Joko Widodo in person.

“In addition to physical vaccination or injection, it also strengthens the children, support for children, because children during this pandemic are completely quarantined in Islamic boarding schools. They cannot be visited, cannot go out, cannot go home, except once every year for Eid. ” he informed.

Students of the Pandanaran Islamic Boarding School had been waiting for the vaccination program for some time amid ever-increasing cases of COVID-19, he added.

He said he expected all eight thousand students of the school to be vaccinated under the program.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The Merdeka Belajar Program is an endeavor to free teachers and students’ thinking and expression, second deputy chief expert at the Presidential Office (KSP), Agung Hardjono, has said.

“The Merdeka Belajar (Freedom in Learning) program is an effort to liberate teachers and students in using their minds and expressing themselves. It is inspired by the spirit of the father of national education, Ki Hajar Dewantara,” Hardjono said in a KSP press release received here on Wednesday.

In his state address at MPR’s annual session here on Monday (August 16, 2021), President Joko Widodo had conveyed that the Merdeka Belajar program is expected to be one of the government’s measures to synergize education and industry.

This program is also a real step in accelerating the development of entrepreneurship, Widodo pointed out.

“The Merdeka Belajar program can bolster the enhancement of national human resources quality, and improve the competitiveness of domestic industries and products,” he said.

The purpose of Merdeka Belajar is that schools, students, and teachers have the freedom to innovate, learn independently, and creatively to produce human resources that possess state-of-the-art skills, Hardjono stated.

He said he expected schools and teachers to commit to innovating in the learning process, as well as reflecting on its progress and influence on learners’ potential growth.

He affirmed that the Merdeka Belajar program is not limited to paper-based learning. Currently, the government, through the Education Ministry, is offering Kampus Merdeka, which is a comprehensive career preparation program to build the best generation of Indonesia.

Kampus Merdeka is part of Merdeka Belajar’s strategy to open opportunities for college students to hone their skills based on their talent and interest by directly jumping into the world of work to lay a foundation for their future careers.

Source: ANTARA News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Anwar Makarim has dispatched 970 Indonesian students to participate in exchange programs at 59 world-class universities in 28 countries.

“I congratulate the 970 students from 98 universities in Indonesia who have passed the selection program of the Indonesia International Student Mobility Award (IISMA),” Makarim said in the virtual dispatch to the IISMA’s 2021 awardees on Monday.

“In 2021 and 2022, they will take part in an exchange program at 59 world-class universities in 28 countries. It is amazing,” he added

This batch of students are part of the first IISMA organized by the Education Ministry. Through the program, Indonesian students can realize their dreams of attending leading universities, developing cross-cultural skills, strengthening global networks, and preparing themselves for the working world, he stressed.

Makarim further added that the students’ achievements are exceptional, because they were selected from 2,551 candidates who participated in the program throughout Indonesia.

“It is proof that although we are living in a time of limitations, the opportunity is still there,” he said, adding that through the Kampus Merdeka program, the ministry aims to free students from the limitations of learning.

Currently, there are no more academic restrictions, because all programs of Kampus Merdeka are worth 20 credits. For funding, all its participants received aid from the Finance Ministry’s Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), he further said. “In addition, the diverse selection of programs also eliminate the boundaries of subjects and interests. Therefore, now is the time for students to free themselves from restrictive barriers,” he explained.

“Especially, if you are an IISMA scholarship recipient, try something new. Make friends with new people and bring home knowledge and experiences that are beneficial to yourself and your surroundings,” Makarim said.

The scholarship is a collaboration between the Ministry of Education and LPDP, and students are given the opportunity to enrich their knowledge for one semester on four continents, he continued.

It is an effort to accelerate, strengthen and open opportunities for students to study abroad at world-renowned universities to gain a great learning experience, to build their self-confidence and international networks, he said.

Source: Antara News

Jakarta (ANTARA) – Chairman of the Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), Bambang Soesatyo, has urged Indonesian students in Malaysia to inculcate the spirit of nationalism and civic awareness.

“I really hope Indonesian students in Malaysia participate in taking an active role in conveying the national narrative,” Soesatyo said in a written statement received here on Saturday.

Soesatyo made the remarks while attending a virtual event on ‘Socialization of the Four Pillars of MPR’, organized by the Indonesian Students Association in Malaysia (PPI Malaysia).

During the online interaction, Soesatyo highlighted that the national narrative will produce optimal results if it manifests in real work and does not rest on discourse and rhetoric alone. The expected result is the development of the nation’s character enriched by insights about Indonesia, he emphasized.

As a plural nation, Indonesia is fortunate to be united by a vision of nationality and common aspiration, as stipulated in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, the MPR chairman added.

“That (the aspiration) is the realization of an independent, united, sovereign, just, and prosperous Indonesia,” he pointed out.

The Preamble to the 1945 Constitution also mandates a form of government that protects all people of Indonesia and the entire homeland of Indonesia, advances general prosperity, develops the nation’s intellectual life, and participates in implementing a world order based on freedom, lasting peace, and social justice, he noted.

After 76 years of independence, the Indonesian people will begin to move towards the era of Golden Indonesia 2045, Soesatyo continued.

In making this journey, he said, there are collective questions that must be answered by Indonesian citizens, such as the extent of the accomplishments that Indonesia has managed to achieve in realizing the vision of nationality and purpose of independent Indonesia as mandated in the Constitution.

“This question is also relevant for us to present to the younger generation of our nation,” he remarked while stressing that the current generation is the generation that will take over the wheel of national leadership in Golden Indonesia 2045.

Therefore, with the country marking nearly a century of independence, questions related to Indonesia’s achievements must be answered , he remarked.

Source: ANTARA News