The Structural Issue Behind Indonesia’s Low Reading Interest

Reading is a foundational part of learning that can help us broaden horizons, improve understanding, and develop thinking capacity. It is a crucial part of education everywhere, especially in countries with emerging economies like Indonesia. Indonesia actually has a wide range of reading materials, yet people’s reading interest remains low.

The commonly-heard argument is that Indonesians’ low interest in reading is due to limited infrastructure and access to reading materials. However, in reality, the country’s low reading interest is rooted in a structural issue closely related to multidimensional poverty and inequality. For many, especially those struggling with welfare issues, reading is often considered a trivial activity, even a luxury.

Low Reading Interest

In the 2022 OECD’s PISA test, Indonesia’s reading literacy ranked in the bottom 10 out of 80 evaluated countries. Indonesia’s Ministry of Education data on reading literacy also shows that the national average of reading activity fell under the low category. This is partly influenced by people’s meager reading habits and the general lack of culture that fosters them.

For instance, students often only read to complete school assignments or fulfill the learning process. This tends to limit their book repertoire to textbooks only, and build a frail reading culture and habit that will eventually fade when they graduate and no longer study.

Meanwhile, reading is often considered a frivolous activity—’a waste of time’, almost—by adults among the general public, especially by those still struggling to earn a decent living. As a result, achieving lifelong learning that requires reading as one of its main instruments becomes difficult in a society unaccustomed to reading in everyday life.

The Trap of Poverty

Reading interest does not magically appear. People who become active readers are usually exposed to reading since childhood, or come from educated, prosperous families who can support them with reading materials. The interest is formed and cultivated through stimulation and habits that require various preconditions, such as free time and energy, quiet and comfortable space, thinking ability, and peace of mind. All of those aspects are made possible by a decent life.

Meanwhile, many people in Indonesia still have to grapple with economic pressures. Children from poor families are often forced to work to help ease family burden. Reading books becomes incredibly difficult in these conditions. It might not even cross their mind.

Furthermore, poverty impacts various aspects of our lives, including nutritional intake. Poor nutrition intake leads to lower cognitive abilities that affect our ability to digest information, including when reading, and impact educational achievement. Parents with immense economic pressure rarely have the opportunity to access reading materials, let alone foster reading habits in the family, because their time and energy are devoted to earning a livelihood. In short, forming and cultivating people’s interest in reading requires measures beyond just the availability of reading materials.

Books and Libraries with No Readers

The interventions from the Indonesian government and other stakeholders in the education sector are mostly focused on providing reading infrastructure or supporting materials, such as establishing libraries, granting programs for literacy communities, or providing book assistance to villages.

In 2025, for instance, the National Library of Indonesia plans to implement an assistance program to provide quality reading materials for public libraries in villages, sub-districts, community reading parks, and libraries in places of worship. Similar programs have been implemented several times before.

Although it seems appropriate, the intervention above often does not address the root cause and rarely improves people’s reading interest. While libraries exist in every region, even in villages, only few visit them. Books from the most populated Java island sent to schools in remote areas only end up in displays. In the end, the books are sold to second-hand goods collectors when there is not enough space, and new books from another assistance program will arrive again. Rinse and repeat.

Additionally, the presence of literacy communities in various regions often fails to address the root cause as well. Many of them have exclusive activities that involve only those who already have an interest and passion for books or are involved in the literary field. These communities eventually do not become a vehicle for widespread social transformation that can answer society’s real needs, such as providing safe and inclusive spaces for women, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable communities.

Addressing the Root Causes

Low reading interest is one of Indonesia’s biggest challenges that hinder the country’s improvements and human development. This underscores the urgency of cooperation between the government, businesses, and civil society to formulate a systemic solution.

The government must form policies to designate literacy as a national priority to improve reading interest. This can include integrating literacy into poverty eradication programs, expanding access to affordable and quality education, and making literacy an indicator of human development with a similar level of importance as school participation rates.

Strengthening literacy must be a cross-sectoral agenda that involves social, economic, and cultural aspects. In practice, increasing the public’s reading interest must go hand in hand with efforts to eradicate poverty, uphold human rights, and expand access to quality basic services and social protection.

Meanwhile, key stakeholders in the education sector, such as schools, educators, and curriculum developers, must also transform into spaces that foster a love of reading and gaining knowledge.

Publishers, bookstores, and literacy industry players must take a stronger role in addressing this issue by expanding access to affordable and quality books, establishing partnerships with schools and communities, and encouraging digital innovation to reach a wider readership, especially in remote areas. The literacy community must also carry out activities or movements that reach the general public inclusively, including blue collar workers, women, people with disabilities, and children, as well as mainstream reading activities in society.

Editor: Nazalea Kusuma

Translator: Kresentia Madina

The original version of this article is published in Indonesian at Green Network Asia – Indonesia.

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