Digital literacy among Indonesian people is currently in the medium category and needs to be improved, according to the Communication and Informatics Ministry.

“This means that Indonesia still has some work to do for bolstering the people’s digital competency in an egalitarian manner,” an official from the ministry, Bonifasius Wahyu Pudjianto, said at an event on Wednesday.

The 2020 National Digital Literacy Index Survey, conducted by the ministry and Katadata Insight Center, categorized people’s general digital literacy rate as medium on a scale of one to five, he pointed out.

Based on the survey, the highest score for digital literacy, defined as information and data literacy capability as well as technological capability, was 3.68, he noted.

In terms of digital security skills, people’s literacy was pegged at 3.38, while their communication and collaboration capability was recorded at 3.17, he said.

Strengthening digital literacy capability has become more urgent since Indonesia is in the phase of digital transformation acceleration, Pudjianto said.

To realize this, digitally literate human resources are necessary, he added.

According to Pudjianto, citizens should not just be capable of operating devices that connect them to the Internet in their daily life.

They should also be able to optimize electronic gadgets to benefit themselves and others, he said.

“One of the important points is to think critically regarding media and data,” he expounded.

The ministry is currently running the Indonesia Becoming More Digitally Capable program to improve people’s digital capability, he said.

Source: Antara News