The Hindu : National : `Each one, teach one' to educate 14 million: Kalam

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Thursday, Sep 09, 2004

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`Each one, teach one' to educate 14 million: Kalam

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 8. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, used the International Literacy Day platform today to renew the `each one, teach one' slogan while making a case for a target-driven approach to addressing the problem of illiteracy.

Addressing a function organised by the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy to mark International Literacy Day, he suggested that the Human Resource Development Ministry set itself an annual target of educating 14 million people in the 15-35 age group.

Wide vision

Advocating a "multi-pronged approach" to achieving total literacy, Dr. Kalam said the campaign should be taken up in mission mode through the involvement of school children. "We can deploy 1.4 million children assisted by one lakh school teachers spread all over the country to educate at least seven million adults who cannot read and write. The period in which they can provide intensive training can be two years."

Drawing the university community in to the endeavour, the President said: "They should look beyond the campus and see what opportunities we have to help society. One of the possible schemes they can undertake is a literacy mission in the nearby rural areas."

`Literacy programmes'

Elaborating, he said: "We have nearly 300 universities and 11,000 colleges. We have to cover literacy programmes for 5,83,000 villages and many urban areas. If each university can reach villages within a 10 km. distance through their 11,000 colleges and help educate 1,000 adults, we will see, in a two-year period, 11 million adults go through education. This should be done in addition to the present adult literacy programme, which is educating nearly seven to eight million people per year. The combined effect of the three schemes will enable us to realise a target of educating 14 million adults every year."

The Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Mohammad Ali Ashraf Fatmi, said literacy was an indispensable tool for development.

The success of a literacy movement is dependent on social awareness and public participation, he said.

The President presented the Satyen Maitra Memorial Literacy Award to four districts — Kishanganj in Bihar for the Total Literacy Campaign, Gondia in Maharashtra for the post-literacy programme, and Idukki in Kerala and Ajmer in Rajasthan for continuing education programmes.

Dr. Kalam also conferred the NLM-UNESCO Award on the Jan Shikshan Sansthan, Bharuch (Gujarat), the State Resource Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia (New Delhi) and the Centre for Adult, Continuing Education and Extension, Bharthidasan University, Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu).

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