Students of IPB Created Rumba Rimba, the Reading House Based on Forestry
Indonesian population had a very low reading interest. Based on the data of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2012, the reading interest of the Indonesian population was only reaching 0.0001 percent. This figure meant that out of 1,000 Indonesian people, there was only one who had the reading interest. It was very low in number. In handling this issue, the government had been doing a lot programs to increase the interest in reading of the population. One was by making Taman Bacaan Masyarakat (TBM) which aimed to have the opportunity to read, not only for those who were still at school, but all communities.
Taman Bacaan Masyarakat (TBM) was a place that was deliberately created by the government, the individual, or the self-managed and the self-help communities to provide the reading materials and to foster the interest in reading to the surrounding community in TBM (Sutarno 2008). TBM had other terms such as the library, the reading hut, the reading hovel or the reading house. All of these terms had the same meanings as Taman Bacaan Masyarakat, it’s just that the use was different depending on the philosophy to be taken from Taman Bacaan.
The era of the globalization that was happening now was required all changes in the living field of community and state to be better, more open and more prosperous. The reading house as one of the containers in the education was also required in this change. As an example, the reading house that during this time had been only as a container to provide the reading materials and to foster the interest in reading, today it could also be a container for other things such as the development of interests and talents as well as other educational programs.
One example of the implementation of TBM with other educational programs was Rumba Rimba. Rumba Rimba was one of the programs of TBM formed by five students of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) incorporated in the Student Creativity Program (PKM), they were Adhitya Suhada, Shyntia Oktaviani, Afifah Hanum, Muthi'ah Nur Fadhilah, and Yogi Adi Syah Putra. This TBM applied the concept of the reading house based on the forestry education. Basis of the scientific field was dominated on the Faculty of Forestry into the background to focus the TBM education program into the forestry. The education on the forestry could be started from small things such as the introduction of books or other educations that could be applied through the presence of the reading house.
Other than that, the purpose of its formation of Rumba Rimba was to play a role in supporting the government program, namely socializing the Indonesian language. The presence of this reading house became the first step of the general community, especially children, to know, to learn, and to love the Indonesian language. Not just the education about the forestry, but also popularizing the Indonesian language in the regions which incidentally still more often used the local language in the daily life.
This reading house was a blend between reading the books, the technology, and the education activities which were appealing to some children, so that the reading house could be a forum for the forestry education and the socialization of the Indonesian language. So far, the students of IPB made Yayasan Panti Sosial Anak Asuh Kosgoro located not far from the campus of IPB Dramaga as the implementation location of the program of Rumba Rimba.(KHO/NM)
