No to Illiteracy

Adult Education (प्रौढ़ शिक्षा) is now ‘Education for All’ in the country: As a progressive step, it has also been decided that from now onwards that the term “Education For All” will be used in place of “Adult Education” by the Ministry in view of the fact that the terminology “Adult Education” is now incorporating appropriately all non-literates of 15 years and above age group.

In fact, the Modi government has launched a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, “New India Literacy Programme” (NILP) for implementation during five years from the FYs 2022-23 to 2026-27 with financial outlay of Rs.1037.90 crore out of which Rs.700.00 crore is Central share and Rs.337.90 crore is State share.

The scheme aims to cover a target of 5.00 crore non-literates in the age group of 15 years and above. The Scheme has five components: (i) Foundational Literacy and Numeracy, (ii) Critical Life Skills, (iii) Vocational Skills Development, (iv) Basic Education and (v) Continuing Education.

The beneficiaries under the scheme are identified through door to door survey on Mobile App by the surveyors in the States/UTs. The non-literate can also avail the benefit of the scheme through direct registration from any place through mobile app. The scheme is mainly based on volunteerism for teaching and learning. Volunteers can also register through a mobile app for this purpose.

The scheme is based on technology and implemented predominantly through online mode. The teaching learning material and resources have been made available on the DIKSHA platform of NCERT and can be accessed through the mobile-apps. Further, other modes like TV, Radio, Samajik Chetna Kendra etc. are also to be used for dissemination of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy. All the non-literate above 15 years of age can avail the benefits of the scheme.

The objectives of the scheme is to impart not only foundational literacy and numeracy but also to cover other components which are necessary for a citizen of 21st century such as critical life skills (including financial literacy, digital literacy, commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and education, and family welfare); vocational skills development (with a view towards obtaining local employment); basic education (including preparatory, middle, and secondary stage equivalency); and continuing education (including engaging holistic adult education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, and recreation, as well as other topics of interest or use to local learners, such as more advanced material on critical life skills).

As has been pointed out, the scheme covers non-literates of the age of 15 years and above in all state/UTs in the country. The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-27 is 5 (five) crore learners @ 1.00 crore per year by using “Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in collaboration with National Informatics Centre, NCERT and NIOS in which a learner may register him/herself with essential information like name, date of birth, gender, Aadhaar number, mobile number etc.

The estimated total outlay of “New India Literacy Programme” is Rs.1037.90 crore which includes Central share of Rs.700 crore and State share of Rs.337.90 crore respectively for the FYs 2022 -27.

Salient Features of the Scheme

1. School will be Unit for implementation of the scheme.

2. Schools to be used for conducting surveys of beneficiaries and Voluntary Teachers (VTs).

3. Different strategies are to be adopted for different age cohorts. Flexibility for States/UTs will be provided to undertake innovative activities.

4. Foundational Literacy and Numeracy will be imparted through Critical Life Skills to all non-literates in the age group of 15 years and above.

5. Use of Technologies to impart Adult Education for wider coverage of the scheme.

6. Performance Grading Index (PGI) for State/UT and district level will show the performance of States and UTs to implement the scheme and achievements on yearly basis by weighing both the physical and financial progress through the UDISE portal.

7. CSR/Philanthropic Support may be received by hosting ICT support, providing volunteer support, opening facilitation centres for learners and for providing IT access to economically weak learners in the form of cell phones, etc

8. Priority and Saturation in Literacy- The age cohort of 15-35 will be saturated first followed by ages 35 and above. Priority will be given in terms of categories to the Girls and women, SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, Persons with Special Needs (Divyangjans), Marginalized/ Nomadic/ construction workers/ laborers/etc. who can substantially and immediately benefit from adult education. In terms of location/area, the focus shall be on all aspirational districts of NITI Aayog, districts with literacy rates less than the National/State average, districts with female literacy rates less than 60% as per the 2011 Census, Districts/ Blocks with large SC/ST/ Minority population, Educationally Backward Blocks, Left Wing Extremism Affected districts.

9. Convergence with Ministries and Departments for effective implementation of NILP: MeitY: Digital Literacy, DFS/MoF: Financial Literacy, MoSDE: Skilling, DoJ/MoLJ: Legal Literacy, MoD: Involvement of NCC Volunteer and Ex- Servicemen, MoYAS: Involvement of NYKS, NSS, MoRD: NRLM and DDU-GKY, MoC: Involvement of Cooperative Societies, MoHFW: Health and Hygiene Literacy, NDMA/MHA: Disaster Management, MoMA: for implementing among Minorities, DoHE: Continuing Edn, Min of Culture: Libraries, Cultural Literacy, MoPR: For Panchayat support, Rural Libraries, MWCD: Involvement of Anganwadi Workers, and MoTA: Implementing in Tribal areas etc.

10. NILP as Janandolan:

– The three crores students/children of around 7 lakh schools registered under UDISE along with about 50 lakh teachers of Government, Aided and Private schools will participate as volunteers.

– An estimated 20 lakh students from Teacher Education and Higher Education Institutions will be actively involved as volunteers.

– Support will be garnered from PRIs, Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers and an estimated 50 lakhs NYSK, NSS and NCC volunteers.

– There will be involvement of community, participation of philanthropic/CSR organizations through volunteerism and through Vidyanjali portal.

– States/UTs will promote individual/ family/ village/ district success stories through various platforms.

– It will utilize all types of media – Electronic, Print, Folk & Inter-personal platforms including social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TV channels, radio, etc.

11. Central Portal to be developed by NIC for aggregated data capturing equipped with Mobile App, Online Survey Module, Physical & Financial Modules and Monitoring Framework, etc.

12. Assessment of Literacy will be conducted using scientific format to capture the real-life learnings and skills for functional literacy. Assessment on demand will also be made through OTLAS and e-certificate jointly e-signed by NIOS and NLMA will be issued to the learner.

13. Annual Achievement Survey of Learning Outcomes by samples of 500-1000 randomly selected learners from each state/UT and Outcome-Output Monitoring Framework (OOMF).

As per Census 2011, the absolute number of non-literates of the country in 15 years and above age group is 25.76 crore (Male 9.08 crore, Female 16.68 crore). In consideration of the progress of persons certified as literates being to the tune of 7.64 crore under the Saakshar Bharat programme implemented during 2009-10 to 2017-18, it is estimated that currently around 18.12 crore adults are still non-literate in India.