The Implementation of Serdang Bedagai Regency Policy in

Accomplishing the Conception of Literacy District

Agus Marwan, R. Hamdani Harahap and Amir Purba

Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Literacy, Implementation of Policy, Literacy District.

Abstract: Serdang Bedagai is one of Literacy District in Indonesia. How the policy been applied and implemented to

accomplish the conception of literacy district is the formulation of the problem in this study. The objective of

this research is to find out the implementations of policies and programs worked by Serdang Bedagai in

accomplishing the conception of Literacy District.This research formed in a descriptive analysis. Achieved

by describing the available data and facts, of which the data then been interpreted and analyzed. The data

gained through data collection techniques then been given adequate interpretation by following with the

formulated research objectives. To accomplish the conception of literacy district, there are two-line

approaches that have been conducted by Serdang Bedagai. First, by formulating several policies related to

literacy. Second, by executing the program as a literacy policy derivative. Serdang Bedagai has formulated a

policy in the form of Regional Regulation (Perda) No. 7 of 2016, Regent Decree, Decree of the Head of

Education Authorities, and several Circular Letters of the Head of the Education Authorities related to the

literacy program. This policy then been followed up with the implementation in the form of programs. The

formulated policies and programs have been meet the Regional Literacy Index (ILD) standards and thus

Serdang Bedagai able to accomplish the conception of Literacy District.

1 INTRODUCTION

It is undeniable that most Indonesian people still have

a very low interest in reading. As well as Indonesian

students. The survey of reading interest conducted by

the 2015 PISA (International Student Assessment

Program) test announced on December 6, 2016, has

placed Indonesia in 64th rank out of 72 countries

(Antoro, 2017). In the 2011 Progress in International

Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Indonesia is ranked

45th out of 48 participating countries with a score of

428 out of an average score of 500 (Kementerian

Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2016).

The National Library of the Republic of Indonesia

also reports that 90% of Indonesians over the age of

10 are more fond of watching TV than reading books.

This shows that 90% of Indonesian people are likely

less enthusiastic about reading (Sutarmi, 2015). The

same report also informed that Indonesian people

only read at most 3 books, even more, this comes

from the age 0-10 years. Meanwhile, most people in

developed countries read at least 20-30 books per

year.

The movement to increase the awareness reading

culture has already been managed by various

communities indeed. Yet this movement was still

going informally and only limited to certain

communities. In 2015, the literacy movement in a

formal scheme has been echoed by the government

through Permendikbud No. 23 of 2015. In this

Permendikbud, it is elaborated that literacy activities

are a part of character developing movements. Thus,

as a movement, ithas been regulated to read and write

for 15 minutes every day.

Permendikbud No. 23 of 2015 led to the

emergence of the School Literacy Movement (GLS)

in the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary

Education, the Indonesian Reading Movement (GIM)

in the Directorate General of PAUD and Community

Education, and the National Literacy Movement

(GLB) in the Language Development and

Development Agency. All of these programs are

contained in theNational Literacy Movement (GLN)

(Antoro, 2017).

Serdang Bedagai Regency sees this literacy

program as a crucial agenda to develop students’ and

society’s life skills. Right after the central

360

Marwan, A., Harahap, R. and Purba, A.

The Implementation of Serdang Bedagai Regency Policy in Accomplishing the Conception of Literacy District.

DOI: 10.5220/0010033703600367

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social and Political Development (ICOSOP 3 2019) - Social Engineering Governance for the People, Technology and Infrastructure in

Revolution Industry 4.0, pages 360-367

ISBN: 978-989-758-472-5

government launched a national literacy program in

2015, the government of the Serdang Bedagai

Regency has soon followed up on this literacy

curriculum as a district program.

The literacy program in Serdang Bedagai was

officially begun since the declaration of Reading

Culture Movement in Serdang Bedagai Regency on

November 28, 2015 (Jurnal Asia, 2015). Along with

this declaration, a mass silent reading activity was

also held as well as a mass book reviewing activities

involving 10,610 students and educators. MURI, the

Indonesian World Records Museum,then listed

thisactivityas the record for the biggest book-

reviewingin Indonesia.

Serdang Bedagai District Government's serious

attention in developing the literacy has also been

demonstrated by formulating several policies and

regulationsto implementthe program. The formulated

policies and programs are supported by budget

policies through the APBD. In addition, Serdang

Bedagai also established a partnership with USAID

PRIORITAS to expand the literacy program.

The special attention and commitment of the

Serdang Bedagai Government in building the literacy

movement was finally noticed by the central

government. Especially, at the same time, the central

government through the Ministry of Education and

Culture (Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan

(Kemendikbud)) is actively promoting the national

literacy movement. Kemendikbud’s Directorate of

Primary and Secondary Education through the School

Literacy Movement Task Force (GLS) has

formulated a concept to measure the literacy progress

in regional areas. The concept is called the Regional

Literacy Index (ILD). There are five components

measured in this ILD: first, the index of publication

and outreach; second, an index of strengthening the

literacy actors/activists; third, index of reading

material supply; fourth, index of institutional

strengthening; and fifth, the index of public

involvement (Kementerian Pendidikan dan

Kebudayaan, 2017).

With this ILD measurement tool, the Ministry of

Education and Culture conducts an assessment of the

literacy program implementation in the regional

scopes. In 2017, Serdang Bedagai became one of the

districts in Indonesia which had been assessed

through the ILD instrument. From this assessment,

Serdang Bedagai Regency won first place as the best

National Literacy District.

How the policy and the implementation of literacy

conception in the Serdang Bedagai Regency been

accomplished is the main problem in this research. It

is hoped that this research will illustrate how policy

and implementation are managed and operated.

Moreover, it can be useful to be a reference in making

literacy-related policies by other local governments.

Also, it can be additional literature related to literacy

policies at the district level because, by the literature

search, there are no research results related to literacy

policies at the district level.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 The Concept of Literacy

According to the Oxford Dictionary, literacy is “the

ability to read and write; competence or knowledge

in a specified area”. Meanwhile, the Indonesian

Dictionary Tim Penyusun, 2008) has not yet included

the word of "literacy", instead of "literator" to refer to

the literary experts, professional authors; also

"litterer" which means related to writing-

tradition.When we interpret "literacy", the Indonesian

Dictionary defines the word limitedly, that is the

ability to read and write. People who can read and

write are called "literates".In the Indonesian-English

dictionary written by Stevens and Schmidgall-

Tellings (2014), the word contained “literacy” has

also not included in the dictionary.

UNESCO defines literacy as a set of abilities in

using the skill of reading, writing, and numeric that

obtained and developed through the learning process

and application in schools, families, and communities

(Ibrahim, 2017). On the other hand, the Indonesian

government views literacy as not merely a matter of

reading-and-writing. To compete with global

citizens, the government places literacy skills as one

important competency that needs to be possessed. For

this reason, the society and community have to master

six basic literacy, i.e. literacy of reading-writing,

numerical literacy, scientific literacy, digital literacy,

financial literacy, and cultural and citizenship

literacy.

Laxman Pendit gave literacy a broader

understanding (Gong & Irkham, 2012). According to

Laxman, literacy includes all the abilities needed by

a person or a community to take part in all activities

related to texts and discourse. Literacy is also seen as

a range that contains various levels of measurement,

such as fluent, effective and critical. This means that

the people who understand literacy are those who can

participate actively and independently in textual

communication, including in communication which

using media of print, visual, analogue and digital.

In terms of progress of times, literacy community

is divided into three generations (Gong & Irkham,

The Implementation of Serdang Bedagai Regency Policy in Accomplishing the Conception of Literacy District

361

2012). The first literacy generation, or "literacy

generation 1.0", is a literacy community based solely

on library-related activities. Their acts are limited to

borrowing, reading, and returning the books to the

library. The second literacy generation, or "literacy

generation 2.0", is a generation that has expanded the

activities or variants of services not merely in

borrowing, reading, and returning the books. This

generation held a variety of events to increase the

effectiveness of the correctional interest in reading

movements, from book launching and reviewing,

meet the writers, writing training, to book reading

competitions. The third generation of literacy, or

"generation of literacy 3.0", is the generation that

interpreted literacy entries not merely in the scope of

reading or writing, and even limited the activities only

to book-related things. Their understanding of

literacy is defined as the ability required by a person

or a community to take part in all kinds of activities

related to texts and discourse. In other words, literacy

does not solely cover reading and writing issues but

also goes hand in hand with other aspects, such as

economics, politics, law, technology, as well as

education, history, and lifestyle.

2.2 The Implementation of the Policy

The implementation of policies, cited by Nugroho

(2014), principally is a way of a policy achieves its

objectives. Riant stated that there was often a mistake

in interpreting the implementation of policies that, so

far, we often assumed that when a policy had been

made, the implementation would proceed on its own.

Meanwhile, Van Meter and Van Horn define

policy implementation as actions taken by individuals

or groups of government or private sectors which

certainly directed to achieve the goals set in previous

policy decisions (Winarno, 2008).

According to Edwards (2003), policy

implementation is one stage of public policy, between

the formation of policies and the consequences of

policies on the people they influence. If a policy is

inaccurate or cannot reduce the problems of which the

policy been targeted, then the policy can undergo a

failure even if that policy is very well implemented.

Charles O'Jones defines policy implementation as

an interactive process between a set of goals and

actions, or that is interactive with the policy activities

that precede it. In other words, implementation is an

activity intended to operate a program with

organizational pillars, interpretations, and

implementation (Harahap, 2004).

According to Mazmanian and Sabatier, policy

implementation is to understand what actually

happened after the program was declared valid or

formulated supposed to be the main focus of the

policy implementation. This concerns events or

activities that occur after the adoption of state policy

guidelines, which include both efforts to administer

them and to give a real impact on society (Gustina,

2008).

3 METHOD

This research formed as a descriptive study that aims

to explain or describe a situation, event, object

whether it is a person or everything related to

variables that can be explained either by numbers or

words (Setyosari, 2010). Describing the available

data and facts, interpreted, and then analyzed.

The materials used as data sources are primary

and secondary data. Primary data, in this case, is

collected from key sources that are the Regional

Head, Head of the Education Office, Head of the

Library Office, Education Office Staff, School

Principals, and the staff. Primary data is also taken

from direct observations in the field. Whereas

secondary data is taken from the policy documents

and literacy programs that have already been

formulated and implemented. Also, secondary data is

taken from several program reports.

Both primary and secondary data were collected

and analyzed by using the method of qualitative

descriptive data analysis. The data obtained through

data collection techniques are then given an adequate

interpretation by the formulated research objectives.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 The Beginning of Literacy

Movement in Indonesia

The literacy program informal scope emerged in

line with the issuance of Regulation of the Minister of

Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia

(Permendikbud) Number 23 of 2015 concerning

Growth of Character. This Permendikbud contains

various activities carried out by students and teachers,

both mandatory and examples or choices. Essentially,

the good behaviour mentioned in

Permendikbudbecome entrenched in school.

One of the expected good behaviours entrenched

in school and then transmitted at home is reading.

This is mentioned in the attachment to Permendikbud

item F, habituation of activities in item VI

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(Developing students' full potential), namely: "Using

15 minutes before study time to read books other than

textbooks (everyday)."

Based on the program design and road map, the

Ministry of Education and Culture then sets the

indicators for achievement of the literacy program for

the regions nationally. The indicator was formulated

in the form of the Regional Literacy Index (ILD).

The Regional Literacy Index consists of five

components that describe the literacy program

implemented by stakeholders as listed in the 2016

National Literacy Movement Report (DG PAUD-

Dikmas, 2016), i.e: Publication and Socialization,

Strengthening Literacy Actors/Activists, Provision of

Reading Materials, Institutional Strengthening,

Public Engagement (Kementerian Pendidikan dan

Kebudayaan, 2017).

4.2 The Literacy Policy in Serdang

Bedagai Regency

To accomplish the National Literacy Movement

program that has been organized by the central

government through the Ministry of Education and

Culture, the Serdang Bedagai government has

formulated several policies. The policies include

preparation of local regulations related to literacy, the

formation of The Reading-Culture Program

Implementation Team at Serdang Bedagai Regency

in 2016. The policy was then continued by the

Serdang Bedagai Education Authorities by forming

the Reading Culture Assistance Team in Serdang

Bedagai. In addition to the Assistance Team, the

Education Authorities also issues a special Circular

Letter on Reading Culture.

As for the form of policies that have been

formulated by Serdang Bedagaigovernment, namely

first, Regional Regulation (Perda) No. 7 of 2016

concerning the Implementation of Education in

Serdang Bedagai Regency. In this regulation, a policy

related to Reading Culture is regulated to support the

improvement of education quality. Article 88-89

regulates the reading culture in the Education Unit.

While articles 90-91 regulate Reading Culture in the

Community, and articles 92 regulate Regional

Government Support for the Development of Reading

Culture.

Second, Regent Decree Number 287/420/2016

concerning the Formation of a Reading Culture

Program Implementation Team. This team has a role

to ensure the program can be well carried out by the

plans that have been developed. Third, Decree

Number 18.11/423/1650/2016 concerning the

Appointment of a Reading Culture Program

Assistance Team. The Assistance Team is expected

to carry out various literacy programs that have been

formulated technically. Fourth, Circular Letter from

the Head of the Education Office. The Head of the

Education Office has issued four Circular Letters

which include technical rules regarding the literacy

program that must be carried out.

Fifth, Regent Decree Number 216 / 18-30 / Year

2018 Regarding Determination of the Built Library in

Serdang Bedagai Regency. The Regent's Decree was

issued on March 22, 2018. Through this Regent's

Decree, there are 24 libraries have been established in

2018. The 24 libraries consist of 5 school libraries, 9

sub-district libraries, 2 special libraries, they are the

library of the Regional Representative Council office

and the library of the Serdang Bedagai District

Attorney's Office, and 5 TBM.

Sixth, the Policy of Budget Allocation through the

APBD. In 2015, the regional budget for the literacy

program was allocated Rp. 266,000,000. Specifically,

this budget is intended for the Program to develop

reading interest and the Declaration of the Reading

Culture Movement. In 2016, a budget allocation of

Rp. 180,000,000, - for the procurement of reference

books, and Rp. 229,250,000, - for the reading culture

and library development program. In 2017, a budget

allocation of Rp. 2.91 billion has been allocated for

the procurement of school books, and Rp.

229,250,000 for reading interest development

programs.

4.3 The Literacy Program in Serdang

Bedagai Regency

Based on the policies that have been formulated by

the Serdang Bedagai government, various program

activities have been carried out as its policy

implementation. The implementation formed in the

scope of programsand was carried out at the district

government level, the school level, and also including

the program partnership with USAID PRIORITAS.

4.4 Literacy Activities Implemented at

the Regency Level

The beginning of the literacy program at district level

in Serdang Bedagai was the Declaration on the

Reading Culture Movement held on November 26,

2015, which involved 10,610 students, teachers,

parents, and the Muspida Plus. This activity has

broken the MURI records for the Silent Reading and

Book Reviewingcategories. This declaration soon

followed by socialization and coordination involving

stakeholders to ensure planning and literacy activities

The Implementation of Serdang Bedagai Regency Policy in Accomplishing the Conception of Literacy District

363

can go accordingly to the objectives. This

socialization and coordination are carried out

routinely by involving stakeholders, but the leading

sector is the Education Office and is assisted by the

Library and Archives Service.

Simultaneously the Office of Education

implements a 15-minute reading program before

school hours in all schools in Serdang

BedagaiRegency. In addition to formal schools,

informal programs are also carried out through

Revitalization and the Development of Community

Reading Gardens (TBM).

By the direction of the Regent, all sub-district

offices are expected to provide a library in their

office.From the data submitted by the library

authority, there have been 9 library units in each sub-

district. This continued in the procurement and

development of libraries in the village, and also

libraries in houses of worship. Data of Library

Department, there have already been 81 village

library units in the entire SerdangBedagai Regency,

and 5 libraries in the house of worship.

Per the mandate of Regional Regulation No. 7 of

2016, the learning hours at home starts from 19:00 to

20:00 WIB. Through this program, the community is

expected to support their children to learn and read at

home. Another program is the book procurement to

expand the reading access, especially to students.

Every year the Serdang Bedagai Library Service adds

500 copies to its book collection. While the Education

Office has allocated a budget of 2.91 billion for book

procurement in 2017. There is also launching and

book reviewing activity by presenting the author,

procurement of a mobile library by Dina library,

revitalizing Madrasah Diniyah Takmiliyah Awaliyah

(MDTA) as a place to read Al-Qur'an for Muslim

students. In addition to involving the Serdang Bedagai

Regency Government, the program also has involved

the Ministry of Religion, which conducts coaching

directly. It also supports and fosters several Al-Quran

Parks that have been established in the community.

In addition to providing facilities, a strengthening

program for literacy activists has also been

completed. This was done by the School Literacy

Movement Workshop for all public and private

elementary and junior high school principals, as well

as a training program for librarians. To getbroad

support from the community, a Serdang Bedagai

Literacy Community Forum was formed. This forum

was formed in 2017, through this forum it is hoped

that the community literacy movement can be further

expanded and strengthened.

Literacy campaign programs are also carried out

by both orally and in writing. Orally, in their remarks,

both the Regent and the Head of the Education Office

always delivered messages related to literacy. In the

context of writings, the campaign was carried out

through posters and pamphlets in schools. Publication

of various literacy activities was announced through

print and online newspaper media such as radio,

books, magazines, bulletins, and television.

Various literacy competitions were also held, for

instance, the competitions of storytelling, writing,

colouring and student speech through the Library

Service. Including the Literacy Award given to

schools. This award is held annually through the

Education Innovation Award activity.

4.5 Literacy Activities at the

School/Madrasah

The main target of the literacy program is actually in

schools/madrasas. Through schools, we hope that

children’s intellectual skills can be well developed,

one of which is through the literacy program. Various

literacy activities at the school level have been carried

out in Serdang Bedagai.

The main activity is reading for 15 minutes before

class time in all schools and madrasas. The students

initially read in silent, and they have to present what

they have read,in between class hours, once a week in

all schools and madrasas. In writing activities, they

have to present their writings,in between class hours,

once a week. As well as a guided listening activity

where the students have to present what they have

listened, once a week. These activities also include

regular school library visits.

The school provides facilities and infrastructure to

support the reading culture programs in

schools/madrasas, such as: reading corners in each

class, reading halls, reading trees, and reading

baskets. To give more access to books, various

activities such as student book gathering and books

donations from alumni or other non-binding parties

have already been implemented. There are also

various publications related to literacy, such as

school/madrasah bulletins, and books written by

students. At schools, there are such special elections

to choose the students who are considered having

high commitment and passion for literacy, whereas

the elected students then will be assigned as the

ambassador of reading.

The various literacy competitions were also

conducted at schools, such as speech competition,

storytelling, poetry, writing stories, reading Qur'an,

reading stories with pictures, and quiz. These

competitions are usually held in celebrations of

religious holidays and national holidays.

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4.6 The Program of Literacy

Partnership with USAID

PRIORITAS

USAID PRIORITAS is an educational partnership

program run between the governments of the United

States and Indonesia. The purpose of this program is

to improve the comprehensive quality of education in

Indonesia. USAID stands for United State Agency for

International Development, a United States World

Development Institution. This institution is directly

under the United States Embassy. Meanwhile,

PRIORITAS stands for Prioritizing, Reform,

Innovation, and Opportunities for Reaching

Indonesian Teachers Administrators and Students. A

program that prioritizes renewal, innovation and

opportunities for teachers, education staff and

students (USAID, 2012).

The program works with partners at the national

and local levels to improve the quality and relevance

of learning, improve education governance and

management, and improve coordination support

within and between schools, teacher/teacher

education/training institutions and government at all

levels. Serdang Bedagaihas conducted a

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with USAID

PRIORITAS on November 11, 2014, and the program

began in early 2015 (Suara Sumut, 2014).

One of the collaborative education programs is

matters related to the reading culture program. The

reading culture program began in mid-2015 and is

still very limited to 24 partnered schools. In addition

to training school stakeholders related to the culture

of reading in schools, it also provides 400 copies of

books to each school.

In 2016, the partnership program with USAID

PRIORITAS was continued with the Tiered Reading

Book program. This program will specifically help

children in the early grades to have reading skills and

understanding the reading content. The program

initially trained teachers and principals in 176

selected partneredschools. After the school-level

training was completed, then USAID PRIORITAS

continued the support by providing book assistance to

176 partnered schools whose teachers had previously

been trained.Each school received 312 tiered reading

books and guidebooks.

4.7 The Analysis of Serdang Bedagai

Policy in Accomplishing the

Conception of Literacy District

From the data found during the research process, the

government of Serdang Bedagai District has serious

intentions in designing, implementing, and

overseeing the program so that it can run in

accordance with the achievement targets. This

process is really carried out by considering aspects of

policy, institutional, and fellowship.

As stated by Van Meter and Van Horn (1975), the

implementation of policies should proceed linearly

from the formulated policies. The implementation of

policies through the literacy program carried out in

Serdang Bedagai has been running linearly starting

from the formulated policies that have already been

accomplished through Regional Regulations (Perda),

Regent Decree, Decree of the Head of the Education

Authorities, to Circular Letter of the Head of

Education Authorities that regulates the technical

literacy program. In this case, the policy that has been

formulated through the rules is directly proportional

to its implementation, so it may not come out or

deviate from the established line through policy.

Furthermore, according to Van Meter and Van

Horn, policy implementation is also strongly

influenced by the implementer or executor of the

policy, the characteristics and agents implementing

the program, communication between the

organizations involved, and also externally strongly

influenced by existing social, economic and political

conditions. From observations and discussions with

the interviewees, especially to the Regent and the

Head of the Education Authorities, it was found that

the Regent and the Head of the Education Authorities

do not only play a role as policymakers, but they also

overseeing and act as the policy implementers. The

Regent, in his various remarks, always socialized

literacy policies. So is the case with the Head of the

Education Authorities who always delivers literacy-

related policies and programs during all his activities

in his working circumstances.

Both the Regent and the Head of Service are very

enthusiastic and solid when it comes to literacy

topics. They are hoping that all stakeholders and the

community can support and be actively involved in

the literacy program. Both the Regent and the Head

of Education Authorities seem to have charismatic

leadership characters so that what they have

instructed and run on is always emulated and

followed by the ranks underneath. This kind of

literacy leadership is also directly proportional to the

level of the District Program Implementation Team,

as well as to the Literacy Program Assistance Team

at the Education Authorities level, and down to the

school level. Due to Regent and the Head of the

Education Authorities' active leadership in promoting

literacy, the impact is also experienced in the

technical literacy team up to the school level. This

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365

pattern of leadership decision-makers greatly

influences the spirit of literacy, especially at the

school level.

The connection between decision-makers and

program implementers in the field is very well

established, there are no communication barriers from

the Regents, the Regional Representative Council, to

the ranks of the Education and Library Authorities,

and the implementers at the school level. The good

collaboration between these institutions makes it

easier in implementing policies at many levels. This

circumstance is also supported externally by the

conducive social, economic and political conditions

where it does not interfere with the implementation of

the program at all.

Although the contents of policy are formulated by

regional regulations and the derived policy

underneath, there is still policy rule that has not yet

been formulated by Serdang Bedagai to further

facilitate the coverage of its whole policies and

programs. The researchers found the absence of

policies in the form of Regents Regulations (Perbup)

related to literacy that make the ranks underneath—in

this case, the Education Authorities, Library

Authorities, Sub-District Government, to villages’

government—interpreted the literacy program

according to the regulations mentioned above. The

Education Authorities follows up on several Decrees

and Circular Letters, while the Library Authorities

has not followed up on various policies formulated by

the Library Service itself. The regulatory umbrella

used, aside from local regulation (Perda), is the

Regent's Decree on the fostered library.

Thesupports from stakeholders and society also

becomethis program’s factor of success.The whole

chain actors from the Regional Representative

Council, implementers at the lower levels, parents,

community leaders, and the community are very

supportive of this program. Because ithas been proven

that the region’s education quality is getting improved.

The literacy program that has been developed in

Serdang Bedagai also meets the indicators standards

set by the central government. Through the literacy

program design developed by the central government,

it is hoped that local governments can implement a

literacy program that approves the ILD as well. Their

consistency in ILD is what makes Serdang Bedagai

could finally achieve national recognition as the best

Literacy District.

Even though the policies and implementation of

the literacy program in Serdang Bedagai are

considered successful and thus delivered Serdang

Bedagai as one literacy district, the spectrum of

literacy movements is still limited to the concept of

literacy defined by UNESCO, which is still limited to

activities around reading, writing, and numeracy.

Whereas the central government required that

concept of literacy implemented in broader

understanding, not only merely interpreted as

reading, writing, and numeracy related activities but

also connect with the scientific, digital, financial,

cultural, and citizenship literacy.

The literacy program developed at Serdang

Bedagai still has not achieved the concept that has

been stated by Laxman Pandit. Pandit cited that the

meaning of literacy is all the abilities needed by a

person or society to take part in all activities relating

to texts and discourse. He continued, the terms

odliterate people are those who can participate

actively and independently in textual communication

in real-life everyday. In other words, they are the type

that can contextualize texts in various aspects of life,

be it social, economic, legal, political and cultural

aspects.

If we examine the category 'Literacy Generation'

formulated by Agus M. Irkham, the Literacy

Movement that has been developed in Serdang

Bedagai is still in the category of First Literacy

Generation 1.0 and Second Literacy Generation 2.0.

The First Literacy Generation is still involved in

activities around reading, writing, and libraries-

things, while the Second Literacy Generation 2.0

begun to move on the interest in reading, book

review, writer meetings, writing training, and literacy

contests.

In terms of understanding and discourse, the

actors and activists of the literacy movement in

Serdang Bedagaialready have understanding about

the concept of Third Literacy Generation 3.0, but its

implementation has not yet reached that stage. Third

Literacy Generation 3.0 is a movement that does not

merely involve conventional things as reading-

writing, reading-culture movement, competitions,

writing-training, but involving all kind of activities

related to text and discourse, and concerning all

aspects of life. The Third Generation Movement is a

higher stage where information is the keyword to

capture facts and to determine attitudes when it comes

to decision-making stuff on every aspect of life in

society. At this stage, technology becomes very

instrumental, old patterns change to new patterns and

are far more complex and dynamic.

5 CONCLUSION

To accomplish the conception of Literacy Regency,

the Government of Serdang Bedagai has formulated

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several policies that start from the Regional

Regulation, the Regent's Decree, to the Head of

Education Authorities’ Circular Letter. The policy

contents have been successfully implemented in the

form of programs run by Program Implementation

Team from the district level to the school level. Policy

implementation that has been formulated and

implemented by Serdang Bedagai has already been

referred to as ILD indicators set by the Ministry of

Education and Culture. Of five indicators set out in

the ILD as a foothold to make a region worth the title

“literacy district”, Serdang Bedagai Regency has

fulfilled every element needed.

The commitment of the regional government, in

this case, the Regent and the Head of the Education

Authorities strongly determine that the

implementation of the literacy program policy can be

carried out by the target achievement. The role of the

Serdang Bedagai Regent is not merely a policymaker

but also acts as a literacy-model itself.

The spectrum of the Literacy Movement in

Serdang Bedagai is still in the First Generation and

Second Generation stages. The program activities are

still limited to reading, writing, numeric activity,

library development, writing-training, acculturation

of reading interest, literacy community, literacy

competitions and the like, and are still not at the Third

Generation stage.

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