State's literacy rate lagging

According to the latest (2011) provisional census figures, Karnataka’s overall literacy rate is 75.6 per cent, compared to the national average of 74.04 per cent. But half of the State’s 30 districts fall below the national average. One out of every four persons in the State is still an illiterate.

Only three districts — Dakshina Kannada, Bangalore and Udupi — have so far achieved the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) target of crossing 85 per cent literacy level.  Even the National Literacy Mission’s (NLM) oft-recast target of achieving 80 per cent literacy rate by 2012 has been achieved by the districts of Uttara Kannada, Kodagu, Shimoga and Dharwad. “We are on the right track, but our pace is slow. We need to intensify our efforts,” says A S Seetharamu, senior consultant, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and former professor, Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC).

Seetharamu says more efforts need to be made to target regions with low literacy levels. “The census data will provide village-level information. We need to identify the most backward blocks and start investing in these blocks. We should follow a ‘result- based target’ approach. The lower the literacy rate, the higher should be the investment,” he said. Literacy rate is the highest in Dakshina Kannada (88.62) and Bangalore Urban (88.48). However, this is far lower than the highest in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Female literacy in eight districts — Bagalkot, Bellary, Bijapur, Koppal, Gulbarga, Chamarajnagar, Raichur and Yadgir — have not crossed the 60 per cent mark.

Prof K S James, of the Population Research Centre, ISEC, says it is not a big deal to achieve 10 percentage point increase in literacy levels. Most of the states anyway achieve 10 per cent decadal increase in literacy rates. “We should have aimed at higher levels. More efforts need to be put in to bridge the gender gap in literacy levels,” he says.

Some educationists say one of the reasons for the high levels of illiteracy is the low priority accorded to adult literacy and primary education. Literacy mission in the country started very late. The National Adult Education Programme was launched in 1978, more than three decades after the Independence, under which funds were made available to states to set up departments of adult education. The next initiative, the NLM, was launched in 1988.