Literacy Boost: Belajar, Indonesia

This report describes the results of a baseline survey of second grade students’ reading skills and background characteristics in the Belu district of Indonesia. The baseline was conducted in order to inform Literacy Boost BELAJAR programming in Belu by exploring students’ strengths and weaknesses in literacy development and identifying groups of students who are struggling to read at grade level.

Analysis indicates that the following groups of students are most at risk of not achieving grade level reading skills: students struggling to understand Bahasa Indonesia, students from the poorest households, students who repeated a grade, and students with few home reading materials and those who experience few home literacy interactions. Together, these findings demonstrate the need to encourage reading both inside and outside of the classroom through Literacy Boost teacher training and Community Action activities.