VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has awarded scholarships to 253 native Papuans to help them pursue undergraduate programs at universities in six big cities.

"We are sending 253 native Papuan youths to pursue their higher education in six big cities in Indonesia," Religious Affairs Minister Fachrul Razi said in Jayapura on Thursday.

Razi said he is keen to see the scholarship awardees complete their higher education and get Bachelor's degrees at least.

After the recipients successfully get their Bachelor's degrees with satisfactory grades, the ministry will offer another scholarship program to help them continue their studies at the post-graduate level.

The Religious Affairs Ministry is implementing the 5,000 Doctoral Degree Program, he added.

ANTARA has earlier reported how the development of human resources remains a tricky challenge for Papua and West Papua, as the human development index scores for the provinces remain low compared to that of other provinces in Indonesia.

On Indonesia's 2019 human development index, the scores of Papua and West Papua were recorded at 64.7 and 60.84 respectively.

At the global level, Indonesia's human development index is lower than in several other countries.

As the world's fourth most populous country, Indonesia is yet to rank among the world's most literate nations.

A 2016 study conducted by John W. Miller, a noted researcher at the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), ranked Finland, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands as the 10 most literate nations in the world.

In the study, titled "Literacy achievement tests (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Program for International Student Assessment) and literate behavior characteristics (population, newspapers, libraries, years of schooling)", Indonesia had ranked 60th out of 61 countries. It's higher than Botswana, though far behind Singapore, which was placed 36th, and Malaysia, which took the 53rd position.

Miller asserted that a nation's literate behavior contributes to its successes and failures in dealing with the demands of the world's knowledge-based economics. (Antaranews)