Paper Title
THE ROLE OF LITERACY IN IMPROVING INDONESIAN LANGUAGE ABILITY IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN IN THE INDONESIA-TIMOR-LESTE BORDER AREA

Abstract
The role of literacy in the digital era has various positive impacts on the communication skills of elementary school students. In border areas, countries still have limitations in accessing information online using digital tools, thus slowing down students' ability to master Indonesian at an early age. The problems faced in the border areas of Indonesia and Timor Leste are having limitations and difficulties in communicating using Indonesian. This problem is experienced by most children in border areas due to lack of access to facilities and infrastructure, so that with literacy, what students in border areas face can be overcome. This study aims to determine the extent of the role of literacy, obstacles, and solutions to improve the Indonesian language skills of elementary school students in the border areas of Indonesia and Timor Leste. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method, with the research subjects being elementary school teachers, elementary school students, and parents of students in the border areas of Indonesia and Timor Leste. This research is also based on theoretical studies and based on practical experience. From the results of the study, several facts were found, namely the lack of adequate facilities and infrastructure to carry out ideal literacy activities, so that the solution used by parents was to entrust their children to the closest teacher outside of school hours to deepen their lessons by carrying out literacy activities, and cooperation between teachers, parents, the wider community, and the government to produce local content literature to support literacy activities for children of primary school age. Keywords - Children, Border Areas, Literacy, Elementary School