Literacy is a general term that refers to a set of abilities and skills of a person in reading, writing, speaking, counting, and solving a problem. That is why, literacy cannot be separated from a person’s ability to speak. In Indonesia, students’ literacy skills are still relatively low at this time.
The National Library (Perpusnas) recorded a fondness for reading index in the country in 2020 of 55.74 or in the medium category. This score rose 1.9 points from the previous year (2019) which was 53.84. In 2020, the average Indonesian reading activity is four times a week with an average duration of around 1 hour 36 minutes per day. The survey involved 10,200 respondents in 34 provinces with the aim of measuring reading frequency, reading duration and number of books read.
The low reading culture is further strengthened by the presence of mobile phones which attract students, so they are more interested in reading written pieces and watching videos on social media. This shows that interest in reading exists, but reading power is low, thus affecting learning activities. In addition, students tend to ask questions before reading, even though the information asked has been given in a complete form.
This results in students being less active and less confident in giving opinions, due to their lack of insight. They become less courageous to appear in public to give their opinion. Therefore, students’ interest in reading needs to be increased, one of which is through the development of literacy movements in schools.
On December 13 2022, a community service and empowerment program was carried out from the Faculty of Humanities (FIB) UI which is located at MTsN (State Islamic Junior Highschool) Pulau Tidung, Kepulauan Seribu, DKI Jakarta. The community service which aims to increase language literacy (read-write) is named SIKAP GEMAS MARITIM, which is an acronym for Maritime Literacy Interested Archipelago Students. The five proponents who realized the dedication program were Dr. Fortunately Yuwono, A.Md., S.S. (main servant), Dr. Hendra Kaprisma, S. Hum. and Dr. Sri Munawarah, S.S., M.Hum. (lecturer service members), as well as Iqbal Firmansyah and Meutia Swarna Maharani (student support staff).
Activities during community service (pengmas) include training in formal text writing, training in writing popular texts, monitoring and assisting in writing articles by students, publishing anthologies of student work, and ends with routine page checking activities and reminders to students to enrich page content. . Enthusiastic reactions to the material provided can be seen from the activeness of students in participating in a series of online events. They begin to understand the importance of increasing language literacy.
In addition, the stakeholders in this community service program also welcomed the implementation of activities that are in line with one of the school’s missions, namely to create a conducive, comfortable and enjoyable madrasa environment for madrasa (highschool) students and teachers in supporting learning.
