Penguatan Kapasitas Intelektual Peserta Didik melalui Literasi Rabu Konsisten Berbasis Integrasi Mulok Gunung Ciremai

Abstract

Low reading interest and limited critical thinking skills among junior high school students remain persistent challenges in rural Indonesian schools, particularly where literacy programs lack contextual relevance to students' local environment. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the Weekly Literacy Movement, held every Wednesday morning at SMPN SATAP Margabakti, Margabakti Village, Kadugede District, Kuningan Regency, West Java, in strengthening students' intellectual capacity over a multi-year period, with differentiated treatment for Grade VII through integration of the Mount Ciremai Local Content (Mulok) curriculum, while Grades VIII and IX followed the general literacy programme. A mixed-method School Action Research (SAR) design was employed across three consecutive academic years, involving junior high school students as research subjects. The findings revealed marked improvements in reading comprehension, critical thinking, and reading interest among participants, with the Mount Ciremai Mulok integration for Grade VII substantially increasing local-context literacy motivation. The study concludes that schedule consistency, local-context content differentiation, and teacher commitment constitute the three key success factors of a school-based literacy movement, and recommends that similar programs adopt localized cultural and environmental content to enhance contextual relevance and sustain student engagement.