The United Nations set aside a decade for literacy from 2003 to 2012 and has reasons to be proud of some achievements made till now. Yet literacy for all continues to be “an unaccomplished goal and an ever moving target,” partly owing to lack of political will in many countries, insufficient efforts and inadequate resources and strategies, as it states. UNESCO aims at education for all by 2015. But unfortunately India continues to be in the league of some Arab states and sub-Saharan Africa, where the literacy levels are still below the threshold level of 75 per cent. Some of India’s neighbours have done much better. China’s literacy rate has crossed  90 per cent and Sri Lanka’s has touched 92 per cent.

In the country, Kerala continues to top the literacy rate with 90.86 per cent . At the other end of the spectrum is Bihar, wih the lowest literacy rate of 47 per cent.  Kerala’s achievement has been remarkable and offers several lessons to both government and other organisations working on the ground. What is more disturbing is the continuing lower literacy rate of females in the country. The female literacy rate is  53.67 per cent, as against 75.26 for males, and is below the national average of 64.84 per cent.  Concerted efforts are needed to bring more women into the literacy fold. Among other obstacles to achieving universal literacy has been the continuing failure of the government to address the problems of high dropout rates of students and absenteeism of teachers in government schools. Under the District Primary Education Programme, launched in 1994,  more than 1.6 lakh new schools have been opened, yet the government has been unable to ensure that the students stayed in the class and teachers were there to teach them. There is also the need to examine why  the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, launched in 2001, has failed to meet its goal of ensuring that all children in the age group of 6-14 years attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. Some popular programmes, including the mid-day meal scheme, have been introduced to retain the children at school, but obviously these are not enough. 

Universal literacy can help tackle many social ills prevailing in the country.  It is the only way forward for a growing economic power like India where inclusive growth needs to be ensured for over one billion people, instead of for only a small percentage of the population.