As per its schedule, the NFEC should have started literacy classes in 4,723 schools across the country no later than March 15. However, as the deadline expired Tuesday, some 15 District Education Offices (DEOs) have not yet started classes. Of them, seven DEOs have not finished collecting statistics of illiterate persons in their respective areas, either. [break]
"By now, only 68 DEOs have sent us the lists of illiterate persons of their areas," said Bal Ram KC, director of NFEC. "I guess that only 60 of them have begun literacy classes as they completed the lists of illiterate people many days ago. Other DEOs might be busy organizing training programs for volunteers for literacy classes."
According to KC, six mountain and hill districts -- Manang, Mustang, Jumla, Dolpa, Kalikot and Taplejung -- have not yet completed the details about illiterate persons thanks to heavy snowfall, which forced closure of schools for days, two months ago. Similarly, Dhanusha district also has not finalized the data on illiterate persons.
Those districts that have not yet kickstarted literacy classes include Kathmandu as well. According to Durga Prasain, under secretary at the Kathmandu DEO, it will take at least one more week to launch literacy campaign in the country´s most populous district.
"We are now just preparing to start training for illiterate people," said Prasain. Even in Lalitpur, which completed collecting data of illiterate persons quite earlier, the DEO has started classes only in six out of eight Village Development Committees (VDCs).
According to Shesh Kanta Poudel of the Lalitpur DEO, short supply of textbooks has also delayed the launch of literacy campaign. "We have received complaints from some villages that literacy campaign volunteers have not got sufficient textbooks," he said.
In a bid to achieve one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the 100 per cent literacy rate by 2015, NFEC launched the literacy campaign in 2009, which continued in the subsequent year too. However, there were complaints about same illiterate persons taking part in both years´ literacy classes, forcing NFEC into collecting statistics of illiterate persons before starting another campaign in 2011.
In 2011, NFEC has set a target of making 612,912 people between 15 and 60 years literate across the country. The remaining illiterate people will be invited to participate in literacy classes in the coming years. It is estimated that there are 7.8 million illiterate people in Nepal. However, it will be confirmed only after NFEC completes collecting new date on illiterate people.
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