PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - Acting Governor of West Java Bey Machmudin expressed his appreciation and thanks to the Central Government for providing real support in building a culture of literacy and increasing the intelligence of the people of West Java through the donation of 726,000 books.

A total of 726,000 books from the National Library (Perpusnas) of the Republic of Indonesia were given to the series of activities of the Indonesian Reading Movement for West Java Province at the El Royale Hotel, Bandung City, Tuesday (25/6/2024).

From the total donation, each village received 1,000 book titles.

"On behalf of the people of West Java, I express my deepest appreciation and gratitude to the National Library for the assistance program of 1,000 book titles to 726 villages in West Java. This is a real form of support from the central government in building literacy and the level of intelligence of the people of West Java," said Bey Machmudin in his speech.

"We hope that this activity will produce good things that can be followed up so that our children will love reading," he added.

Bey also mentioned the literacy emergency which was having an impact in West Java and a number of methods that could be implemented in schools or universities.

He revealed that he got this inspiration during a joint meeting with members of the Board of Trustees of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

"I said at the meeting that in advanced universities, students rarely listen to lecturers teaching, but instead are given books and have more discussions. The value is that the more they master books, the better they will be," he said.

"Is it possible to apply this method so that students also get used to reading, maybe one book a week," he added.

Bey hopes that with the assistance of 726,000 books from the National Library for 726 villages, the love of reading will grow in West Java.