REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, YOGYAKARTA -- The population of Indonesia who have turned out illiterates was still quite large. According to data from Ministry of Education and Culture, the number of illiterates in Indonesia by the end of 2014 reached 5.97 million people or 3.7 percent of total population in Indonesia.
Head of Program and Evaluation Ministry of Education and Culture, Pahala Simanjuntak, said the amount of data decreased significantly from 2010 at 5.3 percent of the total population or 9.18 million people.
"There are six provinces and 25 districts/cities that still need special attention because of the illiteracy rate is still high," he said, in Yogyakarta,Monday (9/11).
He pointed Papua province that still has a high illiteracy rate, at 28.61 percent of the population. According to him, there have been several programs to eradicate illiteracy.
The one of program was 'Indonesian reads movement'. This year, literacy programs were not just about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also in culture, social, and economy.