Disusun Oleh :
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
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.
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,
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,
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
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
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
We must improve our human resource, by reading. Reading give us benefit such
concentration. Those benefit are needed for social skill and interaction. All of them will
Everyday we must read at least 15 minutes. Those 15 minutes are worth it. Also it shall
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.
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)
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