“The ambitious central programme is being implemented in 17 districts in state, including Mysore. Volunteers drawn from various fields will educate the illiterate youth up to the age of 30 years. Along with imparting education, the volunteers would also evaluate their learning capacity. About two lakh youth are identified for the programme in the district,” he said.
He was speaking after inaugurating a day-long workshop on education organised as part of the International Literacy Day at Karnataka State Open University here.
Literacy rate
Though, the successive governments have unveiled many programmes to increase the literacy rates since independence, the rate of literacy was still less than 75 per cent.
There are 35 per cent women who are illiterate.
Mysore district is also counted among the 17 districts with low literacy rate, Nagendra Kumar said.
“The people who are school dropouts are becoming easy target for exploitation in various social sectors. A proper education to them will lead to awareness. Recently, the number of school dropouts have come down due to various schemes of the government. Sakshar Bharath scheme has also identified 140 children who are school dropouts,” the DDPI remarked.
KSOU vice-chancellor K S Rangappa said the KSOU was committed to education for all through its distance courses. In the west, free education is imparted for children upto class X.
Hence, the literacy rate is high among the western countries compared to countries like India, he said.
Dean Prof T D Devegowda, N Lakshmi, registrar (evaluation) and Prof Somappa were present.
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