In the first two years of the campaign in 2009 and 2010, MoF had allocated a staggering Rs 1.04 billion each year for the Non-Formal Education Center (NFEC) to make people between 5 to 45 years of age literate.[break]
However, this year, MoF has allotted only Rs 688 million for the campaign aimed at making people, who failed for various reasons to attend formal schooling before turning 15, able to read and write.
Lapses galore
MoF, it is learnt, cut the budget by over 30 percent this fiscal year after concluding that the achievement of the much-hyped literacy campaign in the first two years was dismal.
According to Dr Tirtha Khaniya, who played a key role in drafting education plans as a member of the National Planning Commission (NPC), a plethora of lapses surfaced during the first two years of the campaign. "Those illiterate people who attended literacy classes in 2008 joined the same class in 2009 also," Dr Khaniya told Republica. "We could not keep track of the participants of literacy classes. As long as these lapses prevail, it is useless to increase our investment in such literacy drives."
Dr Khaniya, however, maintained that the NPC was not whole-heartedly in favor of slashing the budget. "The NPC wants to invest more in literacy drives," he said. "But, we must correct these errors before increasing the investment. We will try to invest more in next year´s drive after correcting the errors."
New program axed
The cut in the budget will have a serious bearing on NFEC´s new programs. NFEC had been mulling for months to introduce new programs aimed at providing skill-based livelihood training to those who learn to read and write under the campaign. "As a result of the budget cut, we are unlikely to incorporate these programs in the drive," a NFEC official told Republica.
However, according to Jibachh Mishra, Director of NFEC, the number of illiterate people expected to become literate during the third year of the campaign beginning in February 2011 will not decline even in the wake of the budget cut. "Although the budget allocated for the first two years was high, actual expenditure was low," Mishra said. "Therefore, the number of people expected to become literate in 2011 will stay intact."
In 2010, NFEC had set a target of making over 1.2 million people literate. To meet this target, as per this year´s red book published by MoF, NFEC spent only Rs 799 million during the second year of the campaign. As the actual expenditure remained less than Rs 1 billion each year, Mishra argued, NFEC will set a target of making over 1.2 million people able to read and write during the third year of the campaign also.
As per the report of the Labor Force Survey of 2009 conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), more than seven million people above six years of age are still illiterate in Nepal. Similarly, in the group of 15 to 24 year-olds, 86 percent cannot read and write even a simple letter. To achieve one of the three MDG targets in education, NFEC needs to make 100 percent of people in this age group able to read and write a simple letter.
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