LOMBA ESAI BAHASA INGGRIS 2016

FESTIVAL LITERASI SMA NEGERI 10 SAMARINDA

“ Membangun Kalimantan Timur dengan Kegiatan Membaca”

Improving Human Resources Thorugh Reading

Disusun Oleh :

Rifqi Bagja Rizqullah XII

SMAN 2 SAMARINDA

KOTA SAMARINDA

TAHUN 2016
 Improving Human Resources Thorugh Reading

“The most powerful weapon in the world is education” (Nelson Mandela). The

greatest weapon is education, to gain the weapon we must learn and read about

everything. Knowledge is the power, but recently Indonesia is having a decline on

interest in reading. Based on Indonesian National Assessment Program, East

Kalimantan fourth graders have 42.8 percent who do not understand the words but still

understand the main topic of the text, and there is 31.9 percent who do not understand

what they read (KEMDIKBUD). Most of the fourth graders hobbies or what they do are

only playing games on their phone and watching television, instead of reading books or

reading online articles. This is a deterioration on reading, how can we develop our

province and country if these useless activities still become our habit. The government

already realized and took an action about it. Which is 15 minutes of reading before the

class start. In that time the student can read a book they like, as long as it is not a

textbook. This simple act will have a big impact on our people. Mr Anies Baswedan

stated that “This is one of the way to increase our generation interest on reading”. With

that decleration we see that 15 minutes of reading is really important for our generation.

Which is in terms of human resources.

We can not denied the fact that we still left behind when it comes to human resources.

Based on Jakarta post Indonesia is in 87th of 143 countries around the world in terms of

the human resources. Indonesia is still left behind from its ASEAN neighbors, such as

Singapore (7), Malaysia ( 33 ), Thailand ( 48 ), and Vietnam ( 71). But there is a big

question about this “How we can develop our province and country by reading, is it

reading really help ?”. The answer is yes, reading has benefit based on research
“Children’s and Young People’s Reading Habits and Preferences The who, what, why,

where and when” by Christina Clark and Amelia Foster. Which is knowledge,

vocabulary expansion, reading analytical thinking skills, improvement focus and

concentration.

First, as what Nelson Mandela said that “knowledge is the most powerful

weapon in the world”. Every books and words, contain informations about life. The

writer’s perspective and experience he has faced. The more knowledge we have, the

more prepared we are to face challanges. There are so many challanges that we shall

face, and knowledge will give an easier way to solve it. Because there are tons of

smilarity in problems that humans face, and there are tons of ways of how to solve the

problems.

Second benefit of reading is vocabulary expansion, the more we read, the more

words we gain exposure to, and they will inevitably make their way into your everyday

vocabulary. Being articulated and well-spoken are of great help in any profession, and

know that we can speak to higher-ups with self-confidence can be an enormous boost to

your self-esteem. It could even aid in our lives, as those who are well-read, well-spoken,

and knowledgeable on a variety of topics tend to get promotions more quickly (and

more often) than those with smaller vocabularies and lack of awareness of literature,

scientific breakthroughs, and global events.

Third benefit of reading analytical thinking skills, since we have read a lot of

books, the topic or the plot or the information can be determined into good and bad

(Filtration of the information). With those a person can come up with a new idea about
anything which leads to new discovery of theories. This is beneficial for all of the

countries arround the world because an idea can change everything. And

through reading most theorist can exist.

Fourth benefit of reading is improving focus and concentration, When we read a

book, all of attention is focused on the story and the rest of the world just falls away,

and we can immerse in every fine detail we are absorbing. It is hard to maintain

concentration, based on Detik.com the impetus of car crash or trafic accident is lack of

concentration. By reading book we are used to maintain our focus.

Those are the four of the benefits if we read, now with these four benefits,

“could we increase the human resource and develop our country?”. The answer is yes,

because these four are the basic of what we need to maximize the efficiency on learning

and working. Like the japanese people and american people for the example, Pew-

Research Center there are more adult americans who like to read scientific articles.

Japanese people make reading into becoming their habit, it is not enough if only one

book. Those developed countries have the highest rate of interest in reading. And their

human resource are in the top of the world. We must see and learn their secret in

success, which is reading.

We must improve our human resource, by reading. Reading give us benefit such

as knowledge, vocabulary expansion, analytical thinking skills, improvement focus and

concentration. Those benefit are needed for social skill and interaction. All of them will

create the significant growth of human resources development.

 The best solution for the growth of human resources development, is reading.

Everyday we must read at least 15 minutes. Those 15 minutes are worth it. Also it shall

bring magnificent impact on human resources development.

Reading is the power to success, because what you read is knowledge. Based on

Badan Pusat Statistik Indonesia, we have 3.3 million people and we have not reached

the proseperity level, there are a lot of people out there who is lack knowledge. All of

people in the world are smart, they just need the right tool to do the job, which is

knowledge. We must start to read, everyday at least 15 minutes of reading there are a lot

of benefits from reading. It is not just improve yourself but it also improve our nation.

With just read we can help our fellow comrades. Start reading create better world,

because only us who can create a better world, and if not now when, if not us than who.

Lets build East Kalimantan through reading.

REFERENCE

 Admin. 2016.Americans are more likely to read for the purpose of researching a
specific topic or interest than five years ago. Pew Research Center.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/pi_2016-09-01_book-
reading_0-06/. (October 18, 2016)

 Ministry of Education and Culture. 2012. Kemampuan Membaca Siswa Kelas IV

Sekolah Dasar Di Provinsi Kalimantan Timur dan D.I Yogyakarta. Kota
Yogyakarta.
 Dharma Negara. Siwage. 2014. Indonesia needs to invest more in human
resources. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/09/indonesia-needs-
invest-more-human-resources.html. (October 18, 2016)

 Adisti Lenggogeni. 2014. Kurang Konsentrasi Akibat Kelelahan, Salah Satu

Penyebab Kecelakaan.
http://health.detik.com/read/2014/03/13/080542/2524172/763/kurang-konsentrasi-
akibat-kelelahan-salah-satu-penyebab-kecelakaan. (October 18, 2016)

 Admin. 2016.Americans are more likely to read for the purpose of researching a
specific topic or interest than five years ago. Pew Research Center.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/09/01/book-reading-2016/pi_2016-09-01_book-
reading_0-06/. (October 18, 2016)

 National Literacy Trust. 2005. Children’s and Young People’s Reading Habits
and Preferences The who, what, why, where and when. Washingtown D.C

 Admin. 2016.Indonesia GDP per capita (current US$). World bank.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=ID/. (October
18, 2016)

 Jinan University. 2014. Research on Newspaper Reading Habit in Japan: An

Empirical Study. Guangzhou