An
allocation of Rs.1250 crore was made in the Tenth Five-Year
Plan for Adult Education
Projected outlay for 11th Plan - Rs.34,946 crores
Annual Plan 2007-08 - Rs.401 croes
Adult
Education
The
National Literacy Mission (NLM), launched on May 5, 1988 as
a Technology Mission to impart functional literacy to nonliterates
and modified from time to time, aims at attaining a literacy
rate of 75 per cent by 2007. The Total Literacy Campaign (TLC)
has been the principal strategy of NLM for eradication of illiteracy.
These campaigns are area-specific, time-bound, volunteer-based,
cost effective and outcome-oriented and are implemented by Zilla
Saksharata Samities (District Level Literacy Societies).
NLM
accorded high priority for the promotion of female literacy.
As a result, female literacy rate increased by 14.4 percentage
points from 39.3 per cent to 53.7 per cent during 1991-2001
compared to an increase by 11.2 percentage points for males
from 64.1 per cent to 75.3 per cent over the same period, and
thereby reducing the malefemale literacy gap from 24.8 per cent
in 1991 to 21.6 per cent in 2001.
Government
Interventions in Adult Education
The
scheme of Assistance to Voluntary Agencies in the field of Adult
Education was designated and started in the First Five Year
Plan and was continued with the expanded scope in the subsequent
plans. The National Policy of Education (NPE) 1986 has stipulated
that non- governmental and voluntary organization including
social activist groups, would be encouraged and financial assistance
provided to them subject to proper management. The programme
of action (POA) to operationalise NPE, 1986, inter-alia envisaged
relationship of genuine partnership between the Government and
Non-governmental Organization (NGOs) and stipulated that Govt.
would take positive steps to promote their wider involvement
by providing facilities to participate for selection of NGOs
and grant of financial assistance to them.
Read
More
NGO
Interventions in Adult Education
RIDS is running a community school for 100 of the most backward
children aged 3-10 in Hanumanthapuram village. Their goal is
to provide quality education (including health education) to
reduce child labor and minimize dropouts (esp. girl children).
They have been educating parents about importance of education
and promoting community participation in planning, implementing,
monitoring, and evaluating the school. This includes formation
of a Parent Teacher Association and a Village Education Committee
that will be involved in all aspects of school management.
Read
More
Corporate
Interventions in Adult Education
40
hours is all it takes to teach an Indian to read
Making this possible is a remarkable initiative from the Tata
Group that has changed the lives of thousands of adults in different
parts of India. The 'computer-based functional literacy' (CBFL)
programme is a new-age solution to an age-old problem, and one
that has the potential to lift our country's literacy rate in
record time. Born of the Tata Group's ever-enduring commitment
to community causes and bred by its expertise in information
technology, this is a project as novel in methodology as it
is ambitious in scope.
Read
More
Questions
asked by MPs on
Adult Education
Will
the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:-
a) whether Adult Education Scheme is being implemented in various
States;
b) if so, the number of persons benefited therefrom and the
amount spent thereunder during each of the last three years,
State-wise and U.T.- wise;
c) whether any complaints have been received by the Government
about the misutilisation of funds meant for various literacy
schemes;
d) if so, the details thereof; and
e) the action taken/proposed to be taken in this regard ?
Read
More
Adult
Education : Government Interventions
The
National Literacy Mission was launched in 1988 with the objective
of imparting functional literacy to adult non-literates in the
15-35 age group in the country.The main programmes of the NLM
were the Total Literacy Campaign to impart basic literacy to
the adult non-literates followed by the Post Literacy Programme
to reinforce the literacy skills of the neo literates and the
Continuing Education Programme to provide facilities like rural
library and reading room for the neo literates and other sections
of the community. In addition, vocational training is also provided
to the neo-literates and other disadvantaged sections of the
society through the Jan Shikshan Sansthans to fulfill the objective
of NLM to provide functional literacy
The
NLM has so far been able to cover 597 districts in the country
under various literacy programmes and nearly 124 million people
are reported to have been made literate so far.The literacy
rate of the country has also increased from 52.21% in 1991 to
64.84% in 2001, registering one of the highest decadal growth
in literacy so far.However, despite these gains, nearly 34%
of the non-literates in the 15+ age group in the world are in
India.The gender, regional and social disparities continue to
be worrying.Apart from this,the campaign mode of NLM based on
voluntarism and mass mobilisation has lost its fervor and has
gone down in the scale of priority of the state governments.Most
importantly,based on the existing monitoring and evaluation
system,it is not possible to estimate accurately the impact
made by NLM on the literacy rate in terms of the objective it
had set out for itself.
According
to 2001 Census, there were 304 million non-literates in the
country.Nearly 100 million of these non-literates are in the
15-35 age group and another 159 million non-literates are in
the 35+ age group.150 districts,which have the lowest literacy
rate,alone account for 86.80 million non-literates in the 15+
age group out of which nearly 38.40 million are in the 15-35
age group.In addition,47 districts of the country have a female
literacy rate below 30%.The low literacy rates of SC,ST and
minorities and especially of women also call for immediate redressal.The
number of non-literates in the 15-35 age group amongst scheduled
castes is 21.47 million and amongst scheduled tribes is 13.15
million.Further, out of the 88 Muslim concentration districts,69
districts have a literacy rate below the national average
Read
More
Adult
Education Scheme of the Central Government
OBJECTIVE
Encompasses
the programmes of Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) and Post Literacy
Programme (PLP). Literacy Campaign is the principal strategy
of the National Literacy Mission for eradication of illiteracy.
Read More
Scheme of Support to Non-Governmental
Organisation in the field of Adult Education
The scheme of Assistance to Voluntary Agencies in the field
of Adult Education was designated and started in the First Five
Year Plan and was continued with the expanded scope in the subsequent
plans. The National Policy of Education (NPE) 1986 has stipulated
that non- governmental and voluntary organization including
social activist groups, would be encouraged and financial assistance
provided to them subject to proper management. The programme
of action (POA) to operationalise NPE, 1986, inter-alia envisaged
relationship of genuine partnership between the Government and
Non-governmental Organization (NGOs) and stipulated that Govt.
would take positive steps to promote their wider involvement
by providing facilities to participate for selection of NGOs
and grant of financial assistance to them.
Read
More
Departments
Directorate
of Adult Education
Bureau
of Adult Education
States
/ UTs
DevelopedNation.org
will share the links to all the state government / UT acts /
policies and schemes soon
Adult
Education : NGO Programmes
Partnership
with NGOs
The National Literacy Mission fully
recognises the vast potential of NGOs in furthering its programmes
and schemes. Therefore, ever since its inception, the National
Literacy Mission has taken measures to strengthen its partnership
with NGOs. The sheer grind and persistence that literacy campaigns
involve have greatly diminished much of the enthusiasm that
a few NGOs initially exhibited. The National Literacy Mission
has made all efforts to evolve both institutional and informal
mechanisms to give voluntary organisations an active promotional
role in the literacy movement. Under the scheme of support to
NGOs, voluntary agencies are encouraged and financial assistance
is provided for activities such as:
Running
post-literacy and continuing education programmes with the objective
of total eradication of illiteracy in well-defined areas;
Undertaking resource development activities through establishment
of State.
organising vocational and technical education programmes for
neo-literates;
Promoting innovation, experimentation and action research;
Conducting evaluation and impart studies;
Organising symposia and conferences, publication of relevant
books and periodicals and production of mass-media support aids.
With more and more districts having completed the post-literacy
programmes, the NGOs now have to diversify the scope of their
activities. They are expected to take up area-specific continuing
education programmes for life-long learning. This will include
skill development programmes for personal, social and occupational
development.
Rural
Interdisciplinary Development Society Community School
RIDS is running a community school for 100 of the most backward
children aged 3-10 in Hanumanthapuram village. Their goal is
to provide quality education (including health education) to
reduce child labor and minimize dropouts (esp. girl children).
They have been educating parents about importance of education
and promoting community participation in planning, implementing,
monitoring, and evaluating the school. This includes formation
of a Parent Teacher Association and a Village Education Committee
that will be involved in all aspects of school management.
RIDS
also plans to educate 150 illiterate adults each year through
non-formal education centers and form Women's Self Help Groups.
These villagers will then be assisted in developing income generating
activities to raise funds to manage the community school. Thus
far, RIDS has been unable to raise the funds necessary for the
adult NFE centers.
Rural Interdisciplinary Development
Society
No.5 APCT Complex, Perianahalli, 635205
Perianahalli, Kariamangalam, Dharmapuri District
TAMIL NADU 635 205
India
Tel: (91) 04348- 47407
Adult
Education : Corporate Interventions
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your programmes, issuewise. Its free
All
Adult Education Project see here
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Adult
Education
Project
TCS
TCS
has a tradition of providing free or subsidised equipment to
educational institutions and charitable organisations. In 2001
our consultants developed ChildNET, a software solution for
Childline, a non-governmental organisation that helps children
in distress
Adult
Literacy
Literacy in India, after 55 years of independence, is around
40%. TCS has recognised this major issue facing the country
and has evolved a methodology to teach local people to read
in their mother tongue using cognitive recognition principles
and IT. This is a corporate initiative wherein computers, software,
and support to the teaching community are provided at no cost.
Two districts in Andhra Pradesh and one in Tamil Nadu have been
identified and the programme is underway at an accelerated pace.
This year Madhya Pradesh will be the focus. A comprehensive
programme to extend it to other states in the next 3-4 years
is underway.
40
hours is all it takes to teach an Indian to read
Making this possible is a remarkable initiative from the
Tata Group that has changed the lives of thousands of adults
in different parts of India. The 'computer-based functional
literacy' (CBFL) programme is a new-age solution to an age-old
problem, and one that has the potential to lift our country's
literacy rate in record time. Born of the Tata Group's ever-enduring
commitment to community causes and bred by its expertise in
information technology, this is a project as novel in methodology
as it is ambitious in scope.
The
Challenge
Despite the
best efforts of the government and other agencies, it is impossible
to pinpoint the number of Indians who are illiterate. Official
statistics state that, as of 2001, 34.62 per cent of Indians
cannot read or write
That
means about 350 million uneducated people, assuming the country's
population to be in excess of 1 billion. According to a report
published by the United Nations in 1998, slightly under one-third
of the world's non-literate people aged 15 and above are in
India.
Going
by the current rate of literacy growth in India, it will take
the country 30 years or more to reach a literacy rate of 90
per cent. The issue is exacerbated by an ever-swelling population
that grew by over 200 million between 1991 and 2001. It is in
this context - the increase in the rate of literacy being offset
by a burgeoning populace - that it becomes vital to put in place
new programmes that augment existing efforts to lift India out
of the illiteracy trap.
Target
age group
The big challenge for India lies in teaching its adult illiterates
how to read and write. Considering economic and biological factors,
the most crucial segment among them is the 15-to-35 age group.
Government estimates put the current number of uneducated people
in this age group at 28 per cent. By making them literate India
can derive a whole lot of benefits in a variety of economic,
social and human-development indicators.
The
constraints in the country's path to reducing adult illiteracy
are many: the size and diversity of its population; the time
it takes, by conventional methods, to teach a person to read
and write; high dropout rates; the lack of trained and dedicated
teachers; and inadequate infrastructure. The computer-based
functional literacy (CBFL) programme addresses and overcomes
these impediments through the innovative use of information
technology.
For
any democracy to function effectively, and for any people to
improve their chances of economic betterment, literacy is an
imperative. As a wise man once said, "Education makes people
easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible
to enslave." The Tata Group's endeavour with the CBFL project
is to help pave the path to that education
The
Tata Solution
There may
not be a single-shot solution to resolve India's adult illiteracy
problem, but the innovative computer-based functional literacy
(CBFL) programme initiated by the Tata Group has the potential
to do just that.
The
programme has been developed by Tata Consultancy Services, Asia's
largest software enterprise, and it operates under the aegis
of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives. The CBFL project
uses a mix of methods to teach an uneducated person to read
in a fraction of the time it takes to do this by conventional
means. They are:
- teaching
software
- multimedia
presentations
- printed
material
The
project employs animated graphics and a voiceover to explain
how individual alphabets combine to give structure and meaning
to various words. The TCS course, which uses puppets as the
motif in the teaching process, has been designed from material
developed by the National Literacy Mission, established by the
Indian government in 1988 with the aim of eradicating adult
illiteracy in the country. The mission's lessons, outstandingly
researched and formulated, are tailored to fit different languages
and even dialects.
Missing
the mark
It's not just the CBFL project's components that are unique,
it's also the thinking behind it. Standard adult-literacy projects
teach reading, writing and arithmetic. They require trained
teachers and classrooms, and anywhere between six months to
two years to complete. The costs are high. These programmes
have failed because of the lack of trained teachers and the
inability of poor people to spare the time to attend class for
such a prolonged period
The
TCS programme focuses exclusively on reading, while drastically
reducing the time it takes an uneducated person to achieve the
objective. It teaches a person to read within a span of 30 to
45 hours spread over 10 to 12 weeks. The emphasis is on words
rather than alphabets, and the process is styled to suit the
learner.
Because
the programme is multimedia-driven, it does not need trained
teachers. This also means a reduction in the cost of eradicating
illiteracy
The
results
Those coming through the programme can acquire a 300-500
word vocabulary in their own languages and dialects. This is
enough for everyday requirements, such as reading destination
signs on buses, straightforward documents and even newspapers.
And it sets these people on the path to acquiring the other
literacy skills, including writing and arithmetic ability.
How
it works
The computer-based functional literacy (CBFL) programme
uses animated graphics and a voiceover to explain how individual
alphabets combine to give structure and meaning to various words
Designed
from education material developed by the National Literacy Mission,
the CBFL method employs puppets as the motif in the teaching
process. The lessons, tailored to fit different languages and
even dialects, focus on reading, and are based on the theories
of cognition, language and communication.
With
the emphasis on learning words rather than alphabets, the project
addresses thought processes with the objective of teaching these
words in as short a time span as possible.
The
learning show
The settings for the lessons are visually stimulating and
crafted in a manner that learners can easily relate to (the
puppet-show idiom). The accompanying voiceover reinforces the
learner's ability to grasp the lessons easily, and repetition
adds to the strengthening of what is learned.
The
method is implemented by using computers, which deliver the
lessons ('shows') in multimedia form to the learners. Supplementing
computers in this process are reference textbooks of the National
Literacy Mission.
The
initial experiment for the CBFL programme was conducted in Beeramguda
village in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh in February 2000.
This was followed by an extended trial run in 80 centres spread
across the districts of Medak, Guntur, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.
The initial experiment and the trial run highlighted the following
advantages of the project:
- Acceleration
in the pace of 'learning to read' (it takes about one-third
of the time that writing-oriented methods require).
- Flexibility
in adjusting to individual learning speeds.
- Lower
dropout rates in comparison with other adult literacy programmes.
- Does
not require trained teachers or large-scale infrastructure.
- Can
be conducted on low-end computers (these are the kind of machines
that many organisations can afford to give away).
- Can
effectively enhance existing adult-literacy programmes.
- The
multimedia format ensures that the pronounication of the words/letters
is taught accurately through the system, rather than being
left to individual teachers. This is particularly useful for
languages like Tamil, where the same letter can be pronounced
differently (based on the context).
From
student to teacher
Each centre under the project has a computer and an instructor,
or prerak, as they are called, to conduct a class. A typical
class has between 15 and 20 people and is held in the evening
hours.
In
the early days of the programme, most of the instructors were
retired teachers or people involved with the adult-literacy
movement in the state. While the teachers and others continue
to help out, many of the classes are now conducted by those
made literate by the project.
The
Impact
Gauzia Begum Mohammed is thrilled that finally, at age 40,
she has learned to sign her name. For Velimela Kalavathy, 35,
the exhilaration comes from being able to understand what her
children are being taught at school. And Velimela Chandramma,
30 something, gets a big kick from being able to read bus boards.
Gauzia,
Kalavathy and Chandramma are residents of Marxist Nagar Colony,
an unremarkable settlement of about 2,000 people in the Bandalguda
village of Medak district in Andhra Pradesh. Till a year ago
these women were counted among about 350 million Indians who
cannot read or write.
That
was before they became part of the computer-based functional
literacy (CBFL) programme initiated by the Tata Group and run
by Tata Consultancy Services in partnership with the Andhra
Pradesh government. Today Gauzia, Kalavathy and Chandramma are
instructors in the project, passing on what they learned while
helping uneducated adults in their village and surrounding areas
discover what it means to be able to read.
Individual
benefits
The CBFL programme is currently operational in Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal. This remarkable initiative has now crossed Indian shores
and will soon be implemented in South Africa, where a version
in the Northern Sotho language - one of 11 in the country -
is scheduled to start running in the Lephalale municipality
of Northern Province. The lead for this project extension was
taken by Zaneli Mbeki, the wife of South African President Thabo
Mbeki.
The
first lady had, in May 2002, visited some CBFL centres near
Hyderabad during an official visit to India and been more than
impressed by the project and its methodology. She requested
Tata Consultancy Services to develop the programme in a South
African language, a challenge the organisation came to grips
with in quick time.
The
CBFL programme has has helped more than 20,000 people learn
the most basic of the three Rs, reading, and it has introduced
them to the world of the written word. And it promises to deliver
the education elixir to many, many more. That's the bigger picture,
but it is in the individual voices that the benefits of the
initiative shine through.
"Earlier
I had to ask my children to do my accounting for me," says Kalavathy,
"now I do it myself." Chandramma saw a computer for the first
time when she joined the project, but "now I take classes with
these machines". Says Gauzia, a widow with one son who is currently
teaching three groups of 15 people each: "Getting out of the
house, moving around and meeting people, all of this has become
much easier for me since I became literate."
Beating
the odds
The computer-based functional literacy (CBFL) project has
proved that it can be a cost-effective solution to India's adult
illiteracy problem. But there are many miles to go, and a multitude
of challenges to be overcome for the programme to realise its
full potential.
The
foremost challenge has to do with resources. Getting the computers
the project requires, the infrastructure to house the centres,
the teachers to conduct the classes, all of this costs money.
Even if organisations can be persuaded to donate machines for
the programme, there are obstacles to be surmounted.
The
entity that can make the greatest difference in a project such
as this is the government, but getting its endorsement requires
hard work. Where the state and local administrations have responded,
like in Andhra Pradesh, the programme has been a success. "We
have gone to the collectors and so on, but maybe we should go
to the chief ministers," says Kesav V. Nori, executive vice
president, TCS, and one of those prominently involved in the
CBFL initiative.
Plugging
the holes
The resources barricade may have tripped TCS up, but it
has learnt plenty from overcoming other impediments that the
project faced. "Initially we didn't have the wherewithal to
monitor how things were progressing," says Mr Nori, "We had
spread ourselves too thin." TCS fixed that by employing some
temporary hands.
Then
there was the obstacle posed by what Major General (retired)
B. G. Shively, under whose charge the project operates, calls
the "social dynamics" operating among people targeted by the
project. "If somebody dies in a village, nobody attends class
for 13 days," he says. "For a wedding it's two days, and three
to four for a festival. Also, the monsoons are a hassle: leaking
centres, flooded roads, etc." Add erratic electricity supply,
uninterested instructors and badly located centres.
Another
problem was - and remains, at least in Andhra - getting the
villagers to come to class. "Convincing these people that becoming
literate is a good thing is very difficult," says Mr Shively.
Adds P. Amarender Reddy, who works on behalf of TCS as a coordinator
in the project: "Most of these people have to work for a livelihood.
Persuading them to come to a class after a hard day's work is
quite a task. The teaching itself is the easy part; getting
people into the room is much harder."
It
is in this context that the role of non-governmental organisations
becomes valuable. They can motivate people to join the project
by offering various incentives, like combining this literacy
programme with income-generation initiatives, self-help group
activities, etc.
No
straightjackets here
If and when they do come to class, the beneficiaries cannot
be treated like ordinary students. "Adults have to be dealt
with differently," says Mr Shively. "You cannot tick them off:
why are you late? Why are you lagging behind? So the teachers
have to be trained to understand these nuances, and we do this
to some extent. We tell them to be nice, to be polite." The
regular classroom straightjacket is absent (for instance, women
are allowed to bring their children along).
Where
the programme has come up short is in attracting uneducated
adults among men. The overwhelming majority of those attending
the classes in Andhra are women. A shortage of male teachers
is one reason, but Muthiyala Jayamma, an instructor with the
project in Medak district, says this is because women see becoming
literate as more important than do men. "Also, men take being
taught by women as an affront to their ego; they feel ashamed,"
she says. "They won't even let their wives [who have come through
the programme] teach them."
Forward
to the future
The potential that the computer-based functional literacy
(CBFL) programme holds for India can be gauged from its success
in Andhra Pradesh, where it is operational in 415 centres as
of now and has helped more than 8,500 people learn to read.
If implemented properly, the project can make 90 per cent of
India literate in three to five years, instead of the 30-odd
years it is currently expected to take.
Says
Professor Kesav V. Nori, who has been connected with the project
since its inception: "Today our computers are stand-alone machines,
but if we can set up a network or a portal it would be so much
easier to monitor the project, share information and get feedback.
The kind of infrastructure we can ride on is crucial to the
greater success of this programme. Neither TCS nor any other
Tata company can by itself solve this; it requires the government
to step in, particularly the information technology and communications
people."
Looking
ahead
An infotech-based solution to India's illiteracy problem
can also pave the way to addressing other societal issues that
operate on a large scale. "There's a need to see how we can
use the same sort of module in educating children," says Mr
Nori. "That's one kind of offshoot. Secondly, with these machines
in place, we could now make similar material available for,
say, healthcare or agriculture. We could take people through
the basics of fertilisers, or the entire vaccination programme.
All you need to do is provide the new material, through CDs,
or, if they are connected, through a network."
Vam
Organics : Adult Education Program
The
company provided functional literacy to 127 women of village
Naipura Khadar and shabazpur dor through its 3 adult education
centres located in these villages.
Dabur
: Adult
Literacy
Dabur supports education ( which is useful in day-to-day life
) of illeterate women in the age group of 15 to 35 years get
education
Skill Development
& Income Generation Training
Dabur supports vocation training like Cutting & Tailoring
which helps women earn sustained income. This leads to investment
in education of their children
Hero
Honda : Adult Literacy Mission
This
Scheme was launched on 21st September, 1999 , covering the nearby
villages of Malpura, Kapriwas and Sidhrawali. The project started
with a modest enrollment of 36 adults. Hero Honda is now in
the process of imparting Adult Literacy Capsules to another
100 adults by getting village heads and other prominent villagers
to motivate illiterate adults.
Indal
: Spreading Literacy
Deep in the interiors, endeavouring
to raise the literacy levels is indeed a challenge. INDAL espouses
adult education and support balwadis, which are non-formal education
centres, apart from helping schools run by the District
Authorities.
Adult literacy programmes are ongoing at several locations,
with regular classes conducted at Indal's Adult Education Centres.
Around
40 meritorious girls have been awarded scholarships, and are
expected to continue and complete their school education. To
complete their primary school education, 80 girl students have
been awarded financial support, while approximately 250 adult
women are attending nonformal education classes.
Distribution
of textbooks and financial aid to the needy educational institutes,
apart from infrastructural support is an on-going activity at
most of our units. Through their work the Company has kindled
the desire to learn among 1700 children and adults.
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