Mayor Declares Surabaya Literate City

Surabaya, East Java (Antara) - Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini declared Surabaya to be a literate city in East Java, in conjunction with National Education Day and Regional Autonomy Day on Friday. She said the declaration of Surabaya as a literate city was in keeping with the theme of National Education Day, calling for "Education for Superior Civilization in Indonesia." "Declaring Surabaya as a literate city is part of my commitment to focusing on the human development index, in addition to infrastructure development in Surabaya," Tri Rismaharini said. The mayor noted that the city administration has, in the last few years, increased the number of libraries to encourage children to read more. She asserted that through reading, children in Surabaya will be prepared to welcome a better future and superior civilization. "We continue to arouse the curiosity of children to read a lot in order to be more creative," she said, adding that the presence of libraries also had a positive impact on developing human resources. According to Tri, the Surabaya city administration has made a commitment to encourage reading in society, as 972 libraries have been established throughout the city. Several points of the declaration, read out by a representative of the students, stated that students were ready to make Surabaya a literate city, to read and write every day at school, and to study diligently for the sake of the nation¿s development. (*)