The NFEC has selected 4,723 schools across the country for conducting classes with the objective of making 612,912 people above the age of 15 literate. Each of these schools will have to run literacy classes for three months. However, none of these schools seem ready to start literacy classes right away.[break]
“As far as I know, none of these schools began literacy classes on the first day of the campaign,” Bal Ram KC, director of the NFEC, said. “However, I hope all of these schools will be able to launch classes before March 15.” The NFEC has instructed all of these schools to complete the literacy classes before June 14.
The schools´ failure to start literacy classes on the first day of the campaign is largely due to the new policy adopted by the NFEC. This year, the NFEC has made it mandatory for all District Education Offices (DEOs) to figure out the exact numbers, names and addresses of illiterate people in their respective areas before allowing the schools to start literacy classes. However, none of the DEOs have completed collecting data.
In the last two years, the NFEC had launched the literacy drive without having an exact data of illiterate people. “Previously, we relied chiefly on old data, which stated that there were 7.8 million illiterate people,” KC said. “From now on, we will have our own precise data, which will help draft future policies.”
According to KC, when somebody becomes able to read and write during the literacy campaign, his or her name will be struck off the list of illiterate people.
Though the NFEC claims to have made 1.8 million people in the first year and one million people in the second year able to know letters, government officials themselves find it hard to believe. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has allocated only Rs 688 million budget this year for the drive. Previously, the MoF had allocated Rs 1.04 billion for each year´s literacy drive.
To achieve one of the indicators of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in education, the Ministry of Education should increase the percentage of literate people, who are in the age group of 15-24 years, to 100 by 2015. Currently, only 86 per cent people of this age group can read and write normal letters.
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