Depok-As an effort to improve youth literacy, Syakira Putri Berlian Halim, a student of the Record and Archive Management study program, Vocational Education Program, Universitas Indonesia (UI) created an innovation project called BukuPeta. The innovation is a digital application that aims to improve youth literacy by providing access searches to libraries, reading café or other reading places, access to a complete e-book collection, educational games, registration for literacy-related events, and others.
The BukuPeta innovation project was created together with eight other students from the Center for Computing and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering (FT) UI, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), President University, Bakrie University, UIN Sunan Kalijaga, Yogyakarta State University, and Unindra. Syakira said that the name BukuPeta was taken from two combined words, namely “book” which means symbolizing a collection of information or guidance, while “map” which means providing direction, destination, and navigation. BukuPeta is interpreted as an application that is a guide or “information map” for Indonesian people to find places to read, study, or explore books easily.
(Photo: View of the user profile page in the BukuPeta application)
“BukuPeta is also designed to reduce literacy inequality in areas with limited access to reading. This innovation supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to quality education which has benefits to support equal access to education to be more inclusive,” said Syakira.
Thanks to this innovation, Syakira, along with eight other fellow students, won 1st place in the Video Innovation SDGs Competition at the Indonesian Youth Excursion Network event in Kuala Lumpur, last January and became representatives from Indonesia competing with three other countries, namely Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. In this competition, BukuPeta was presented in the form of a video that displays social issues related to low literacy in Indonesia and the solutions offered through the BukuPeta application.
(Photo: View of the login page for the BukuPeta application)
“I hope that I can immediately implement this innovation and socialize it to young people in the regions. In addition, this victory is expected to provide inspiration and motivation for other students, especially in UI Vocational to participate in similar international activities,” said Syakira.
Meanwhile, Director of UI Vocational Education Program, Padang Wicaksono, S.E., Ph.D, said that the competition followed by Syakira and the team will give them new experiences as an important step to be ready to face challenges in the future. “Hopefully the innovation developed by Syakira and the team can foster other ideas that are useful for improving the quality of education, especially in Indonesia. So, the younger generation can be more ready to make real contributions through innovative and effective solutions,” said Padang.
