Literacy improvement for remote primary school students in Papua, Indonesia: The Wahana Literasi program

Adhimas Wahyu Agung Wijaya
The University of Queensland, Australia
Ayu Siantoro
The University of Sydney, Australia
Hermawati Triwibowo
Wahana Visi Indonesia, Indonesia
Ria Arista Asih
Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia
Marthen Sattu Sambo and Melliana Layuk
Wahana Visi Indonesia, Indonesia

Papua has the lowest literacy rate compared to other Indonesian provinces due to its limited education access. Exacerbated by teachers' absenteeism and lack of available reading resources, improving literacy in Papua is challenging to address. Our study aims to improve students' literacy through school literacy programs. A quantitative approach was employed on Grade 3 students (N=4,111) from 171 schools. Data were analysed through a framework of core reading competencies covering letter knowledge, word recognition, decoding, reading fluency and reading comprehension. We found a significant correlation between children's literacy competencies, their enrolment in kindergarten/ ECD (Early Childhood Development) centres, and the use of children's first language. Improvement of access to ECD centres and acknowledgement of students' mother tongue are important supports for literacy education in rural areas.
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Authors: Adhimas Wahyu Agung Wijaya graduated from the University of Queensland, Australia. He has solid experience as a Technical Education Advisor for various education improvement programs in Indonesia, including remote areas like West Papua, Papua, Highland Papua, and Central Papua provinces. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7456-3522 Email: adhimaswij@gmail.com Ayu Siantoro previously worked as a Program Research and Innovation Specialist at Wahana Visi Indonesia [https://wahanavisi.org/]. She is a PhD student at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science in The University of Sydney, Australia. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2413-9715 Email: asia0417@uni.sydney.edu.au Hermawati Triwibowo holds a Masters degree in Program Planning and Evaluation from the University of Indonesia. She currently works as the Program Effectiveness Accountability Research and Learning Lead at Wahana Visi Indonesia [https://wahanavisi.org/]. She is also a Research Associate assisting with baseline research and program evaluation. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9193-3843 Email: hermawati_triwibowo@wvi.org Dr Ria Arista Asih is a lecturer at The Directorate of Postgraduate Program, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia. She graduated from the School of Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. She is the current Director of American Corner Malang [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEV1sP-yJTNfuNzi1kk8pRg]. Her passion is research and teaching, and her special interest lies in teacher education, educational psychology, pedagogy and higher education practices, and education in underprivileged areas. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9144-3357 Email: aristaria86@umm.ac.id Marthen Sambo is an experienced education expert with over a decade of work in Papua, specialising in culturally relevant training and strategies for Indonesia's diverse basic educational landscape. As an Education Manager at Wahana Visi Indonesia [https://wahanavisi.org/], he plays a key role in delivering impactful leadership training for principals and teachers, aiming to create innovative and child-friendly learning environments to improve student outcomes. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0373-0386 Email: marthen_sambo@wvi.org Melliana Layuk is an Education Specialist at Wahana Visi Indonesia [https://wahanavisi.org/] who has experience in the most remote and outermost areas such as Papua, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and North Maluku. She has experience accompanying educational practitioners from early childhood to basic education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3588-8007 Email: melliana_layuk@wvi.org Please cite as: Wijaya, A. W. A., Siantoro, A., Triwibowo, H., Asih, R. A., Sambo, M. S. & Layuk, M. (2025). Literacy improvement for remote primary school students in Papua, Indonesia: The Wahana Literasi program. Issues in Educational Research, 35(1), 395-421. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/wijaya.pdf