On May 24, Deputy Chief of Mission Brian McFeeters participated in a hand-over ceremony with the Director General of Basic Education at the Ministry of Education and Culture, symbolizing the provision of over eight million leveled reading books as part of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) PRIORITAS program.
In turn, the Director General symbolically handed over 600,000 of these books to the head of the provincial education office in Banten Province. These USAID-funded books are the first readers in Indonesia to be marked by students’ reading ability instead of grade level, resulting in more effective teaching of reading, comprehension, and vocabulary.
The books will be distributed to 986 public and Islamic schools in seven districts in Banten province and help approximately 105,000 early grade students improve their reading skills. Nationally, the books are expected to benefit 3.75 million students.
In addition to developing and distributing these books, USAID’s PRIORTAS program is also training teachers on how to use these books as effective learning tools in classrooms.
