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Literacy drive success debunked
KATHMANDU, MAY 10 -
The government’s “literacy campaign” launched to eliminate illiteracy for meeting the Millennium Development Goal of education by 2015 does not seem to be faring well.
In the last two years, the government invested more than Rs 2 billion to make 3.5 million people literate but the campaign has proved a waste of time, money and energy. The campaign includes a three-month-long intensive package of informal education targeted to literate people across the country.
Expert evaluation of the project performance shows the very concept of making a person literate within three months is flawed and the teaching method unscientific. As a result, learner dropout ratio is high.
More than half of the learners give up before the session completes, said Thirtha Raj Khaniya, an academician who made an observation visit to project sites in some districts of the western and mid-western regions. “Nobody can be made literate in three months. This is a plan made in haste and without any focus,” said Khaniya. “The implementation of the campaign has not been monitored yet. The government is absolutely indifferent to the campaign.”
Reading, writing and arithmetic are the fundamental elements of literacy but students in the campaign do not learn more than the alphabet and counting.
“I managed to learn only Ka, Kha (Devanagari alphabet) and ek, dui (numbers),” said Sita Thapa, a student in Biruwa. “Initially, 30 students got enrolled in my class but only 12 are regular,” said Sabita Neupane, a teacher from Bhaktapur town.
Bidhya Nath Koirala, an educationist, observed that unsystematic curriculum and impractical way of teaching are the main causes of the increasing dropout rate.
However, Jibachha Mishra, director, Non-formal Education Centre, claimed that the programme was going on successfully. “At a few places there may be some shortcomings, but on the whole the outcome is satisfactory.”
Interestingly, a report of the campaign shows that in Achham the programme was so successful that a larger number of people than the district’s entire became literate.
“According to our recent report, the campaign was successful in making literate 106,074 people in Achham. This is a mistake. We have sent the report back to the district to verify the data,” said Tattraya Dahal, a section officer with the Centre – under the Ministry of Education – who oversees the campaign.
Posted on: 2010-05-11 07:34
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