USU Library Science Study Program Promotes Literacy Through Storytelling
Published At
20 March 2019
Published By
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MEDAN – USU PUBLIC RELATIONS: It was still very early in the morning when a group of adorable kindergarten children were seen in the courtyard of the USU Faculty of Cultural Sciences. Their chatter could be heard responding to each other. What on earth brought the kindergarten children and their teacher to the USU campus that morning?
It turned out that the presence of the kindergarten children in the campus area was to attend as participants in listening to fairy tales that would later be presented by storytellers from Kampung Dongeng. The Library and Information Science Student Association under the Library Science Study Program of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences, University of Sumatra Utara held the 2019 Literacy Festival, which lasted for two days, March 14-15, 2019, in the courtyard of the USU FIB. The activity, which aims to raise the spirit of literacy and love of books, was officially opened by the USU Chancellor represented by the Secretary of the University of North Sumatra, Dr. dr. Farhat, M.Ked (ORL-HNS),. Sp. THT-KL(K), Thursday (3/14).
In his remarks read by the University Secretary, the Chancellor congratulated the implementation of the 2019 Literacy Festival with the theme “Be Literate Save Our Future”.
The Chancellor added that several efforts have been made by the government to gradually foster the public’s love of literacy so that citizens have life skills and can compete with other nations. He reminded us that a nation with a high literacy culture shows the nation’s ability to collaborate, think critically, and creatively, and communicate so that it can win global competition. The involvement of the education ecosystem from the preparation of concepts, policies, and provision of supporting materials, to literacy campaigns is also very important so that the policies implemented are by the hopes and needs of the community.
In current developments, he continued, the concept of literacy is no longer only associated with information and media, but has touched on certain aspects of human life more specifically. In the context of the use of information and communication technology, for example, literacy is attached to a person’s ability to use computer devices, both in terms of hardware and software, now literacy has been attached as a person’s ability to interact with society and their environment, culture, business and politics.
The Chancellor also stated that becoming a literate generation means moving towards a critical and caring society. This means being critical of all information received, so as not to react emotionally and to care about the surrounding environment. Through this activity, it is hoped that students and graduates must begin to master new literacies in this era, namely data literacy, technology literacy, and human literacy. New literacies in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era encourage the implementation of becoming lifelong learners, in order to be able to adapt and develop well in facing global challenges in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era and the era beyond.
Meanwhile, the Dean of the Faculty of Cultural Sciences USU Dr. Budi Agustono, MS., hopes that such activities can be carried out sustainably so that their benefits and influence can be seen in society.
Head of the Library Science Study Program FIB USU Ishak, SS., M.Hum., said that this literacy festival activity was the first activity of the Library Science Department Student Association (IMPUS) since the existence of batch I in 2001.
According to him, the National Literacy Movement includes school, family and community literacy movements, to encourage the achievement of 6 dimensions of literacy, namely written language literacy, numeracy, science, digital, financial, cultural and citizenship.
The various events held on that occasion included a literacy parade, literature and plagiarism search workshops, storytelling for kindergarten children facilitated by Kampung Dongeng, literacy talk shows and various other simple games. The event was also enlivened by the presence of three publishers in the book bazaar activity.
