The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : State launches aggressive literacy mission

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 09, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

State launches aggressive literacy mission

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

THROUGH AIR: Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Minister for Primary and Secondary Education Basavaraj Horatti (right) launching the literacy programme through radio on the occasion of International Literacy Day organised by Karnataka State Saksharata Mission in Bangalore on Saturday. K. Shivaram, Commissioner of Mass Education, is at left.

BANGALORE: Karnataka on Saturday launched an innovative system of implementing the goal of the literacy mission through radio lessons, EDUSAT programme and computers in a bid to increase the literacy level to 85 per cent this year from the present level of 66.64 per cent.

Said to be the first of its kind in the country, the programmes were inaugurated by Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti at a function organised on the steps of the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore to mark the International Literacy Day.

The radio programme will have 30-minute lesson a day from 5.30 p.m. for two months. Efforts would be made to teach unschooled people in 18,000 Continuing Education Centres in the State with the help of radio lessons. Each centre will train 20 to 25 persons.

Similarly, the EDUSAT programme will help undertake literacy mission in 1,780 centres in the districts of Gulbarga and Chamarajanagar every day for 45 minutes. The computer-mode of literacy mission will be taken up in 1,737 centres with the help of special software that has been developed to aid literacy programmes.

Launching these innovative programmes, Mr. Yediyurappa appealed to the people to use the facilities and programmes being offered by the Government.

He urged the corporates to join hands with the Government in implementing the literacy programme on a mission mode and suggested a public-private partnership model for the success of the programme. Expressing concern that the delay by the Centre in releasing its share of funds was affecting the implementation of the literacy programme in the State, Mr. Yediyurappa said the literacy mission authorities of providing Rs. 25 crore from the State for readjustments till the Centre releases the money. He pointed out that as Finance Minister, he had made highest allocation of Rs. 13.50 crore to the literacy programmes this year compared with Rs. 2 crore in 2005-06.

While launching the radio literacy programme, Mr. Yediyurappa literally turned into a teacher as he taught a portion of literacy lesson to a group of women on the dais.

In his written message, which was read out by Mr. Horatti, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy urged people to understand the importance of literacy. A majority of the people remained unlettered for historical and political reasons. He declared that his Government was committed to bringing about total literacy in the State.

Mass Education Commissioner K. Shivaram said the Government had set a target of converting 20 lakh illiterates into literates with the help of 10 lakh student volunteers. It was planning to impart literacy training to illiterate members of School Development Monitoring Committees, members of Sthree Shakti groups and workers under the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren. Bellary Deputy Commissioner Arvind Srivastava received the best literacy programme implementation award for Bellary district and Ramanna Nayak was honoured for his achievement as president of Bagalkot District Literacy mission.

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