Education centres at GPs for literacy

7,500 students from 156 schools selected to promote literacy in the district

Speaking at a function to observe International Literacy Day at Zilla Panchayat auditorium here on Tuesday, District Adult Education Officer H A Shamim Taj disclosed that the programme is being implemented in four backward taluks in the district.

Two Community Education and Skill Training Centres will be established at each Gram Panchayat. A volunteer will impart literacy to 20 illiterates at each such centre. 74 such centres will be established at 37 Gram Panchayats in Bangarepet taluk, 56 centres in 28 Gram Panchayats of Malur taluk, 60 in 30  Gram Panchayats of Mulbagal taluk and 50 centres in 25 Gram Panchayats of Srinivaspur taluk. The programme will commence in the coming October, he elaborated.
Shamim disclosed that out of 1.75 lakh people enrolled for literacy in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts, literacy has been imparted to 1.10 lakh people under Project for Residential Illiteracy (PRI) launched in December 2008. The term of the programme will expire this month.

Special programmes
A special programme will be launched for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people has been launched from August this year. Eleven camps will be held under the programme with 50 trainees in each camp. While nine camps will be held for Scheduled Caste people two will be held for Scheduled Tribes. The skill development training for trainees will commence from the week. As many as 30 neo-literates will be imparted training that spans for 30 to 45 days.
Eight camps will be held in Kolar. Out of the total ten camps proposed to be held, five each are meant for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As many as 155 women and 26 men will be taking part in these camps.

Under the programme to improve literacy through school students, as many as 7,500 students of 156 schools have been selected. The selected students will impart literacy to 12,064 illiterates. The programme has commenced in July, he explained.
Earlier, Taluk Panchayat president Udayashankar, who inaugurated the programme called for increased participation of public and the officials to increase literacy rate in the district.

Zilla Panchayat chief executive officer G V Rangarao observed that despite literacy programmes for years together, the literacy rate still remains at 62 pc. Attention should be focussed to rural areas where illiteracy is high, he said.
“It has come to  notice that illiteracy is prevalent in rural poor. Studies should be taken up to find out the reasons. Those organising literacy programmes should also consider these elements for effective implementation,” he suggested.
      The best volunteer award for the year 2008-09 was conferred on Manajbdul of Kolar, Bhagyalakshmi of Malur, M N Bhaskar of Mulbagal and Narayanaswamy of Bangarpet.

Taluk Panchayat vice-president T V Jayalakshmi, Deputy Director of Public Instructions Prahlada Gowda, Deputy Director of District Institute of Education and Training C Anjaneya Reddy, Taluk Literacy Committee secretary, Block Education Officer K S Nagaraja Gowda were present.
The programme was organised under joint auspieces of Lok Shikshana Directorate, District Literacy Committee and Zilla Panchayat.