The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Move to make adult literacy programme interesting

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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Move to make adult literacy programme interesting

A.V.Ragunathan

Activity-based learning system to be adopted on pilot basis in Kattumannakoil taluk

— Photo: C.Venkatachalapathy

NEW METHOD: M.P.Vijayakumar, State Project Director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, with a child at Unnamalai Chetty Savadi School in Cuddalore on Tuesday.

CUDDALORE: Activity-based learning system is likely to be introduced as part of the adult literacy programme. The new methodology will be adopted on a pilot basis in the Kumaratchi block of Kattumannakoil taluk. After ascertaining its feasibility, the government would be apprised of the need for extending it all over the State, M.P. Vijayakumar, State Project Director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, told The Hindu before addressing volunteers of the adult literacy programme at Kumaratchi on Tuesday.

Mr. Vijayakumar said that efforts made for the spread of literacy had not yielded the desired results. With the kind of initiative taken so far, the literacy rate should have touched 90 per cent. But as on date, it stood at 72 per cent. It meant that every third person in Tamil Nadu was illiterate.

In the formal education system, even the fully-trained teachers handling a homogenous set of students could not produce the expected results.

He wondered how the informal system, handled by volunteers with hardly 15 days’ training, could succeed in imparting education among heterogeneous group of adults.

The adults found primers I, II and III least interesting and above all they did not get “a sense of achievement” in reading them. Therefore, there was a felt need for changing the pedagogical methodology to sustain interest.

As the activity-based learning system was found “extraordinarily successful,” it was decided to try out this methodology in the adult literacy programme. However, suitable modifications would have to be made to cater to the needs of adults whose comprehension and outlook varied from the general students, Mr. Vijayakumar said.

On why Kumaratchi was chosen for the experiment, Collector Rajendra Ratnoo said that it had low female literacy rate. Moreover, Kattumannarkoil MLA D. Ravikumar had also shown keen interest in the proposal.

Mr. Vijayakumar, later, held a meeting with the volunteers of the Continuing Education Programme and centres from the four blocks of Kumaratchi, Kattumannarkoil, Keerapalayam and Bhuvanagiri.

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