In its mission to declare Nepal fully literate by 2015, the government had declared this fiscal year the Illiteracy Elimination Year. But only 10 districts have been declared totally literate till now, and the last phase of the campaign launched in 17 districts has been halted indefinitely following the big earthquake."In the post-quake chaotic situation, classes that had halted could not resume on time," said Baburam Poudel, director at the Non-Formal Education Center (NFEC), the government body responsible for running adult literacy classes.
The last phase of the campaign, that was to be launched in November last year, saw classes beginning after much delay in April. The campaign had completed little more than a week in most of the districts when the earthquake hit on April 25.
"The literacy classes have been affected in Nuwakot and 16 districts in the tarai due to the quake and they can resume only after Dashain (festival)," said Poudel.
Launched in 2009, NFEC has already spent Rs 6 billion on its adult literacy drive. However, the annual target has been missed every year in the past five years.
While launching the campaign, NFEC modified the criteria for literacy. As per the new criteria, an individual who is able to read and write in Nepali or his own native language, has the basic ability to use a mobile phone and a calculator, is able to count up to 100 and can fill out bank vouchers and checks, among other things, can be termed literate.
In 2009, only around one million people were covered by the campaign, which was rather less than the target of over 1.2 million. The literacy target was only half achieved in 2010. Only 349,936 new people were made literate as against the target of 612,920.
Similar was the story in 2011, when the authorities could make only 769,367 people literate as against the target of over 1 million. That same year, the national census report showed that the country's literacy rate was only 65.9 percent, or less than the earlier NFEC estimate of over 70 percent.
This fiscal year alone, the Ministry of Finance has allocated Rs1.05 billion for the literacy campaign. With the halt in the campaign, the budget is likely to lapse in 16 districts (Nuwakot excluded), said Bishnu Prasad Mishra, deputy director at NFEC. The office is preparing to demand an additional Rs 850 million to give continuity to the campaign in 2015-16.
NFEC Director Poudel blames lack of cooperation from the public for the failure of the literacy program to achieve its target.
"Despite political commitment from the central level, the cadres on the ground remained reluctant to cooperate with the government, which ultimately delayed the classes every time," claimed Poudel. "The public did not take ownership of it as a national campaign and considered it the responsibility of the center alone."
Starting from 2014, the Ministry of Education pushed for mandatory participation by secondary-level students in the literacy program.
The authorities introduced a directive to mobilize the students. As per the directives, students of grades 9 and 10 must contribute to the program as part of their practicals or as an optional subject.
Two batches of grade 10 students have already passed the SLC after the endorsement of the directives. But the directives remain entirely unimplemented to date.
"Failure to mobilize students and volunteers for adult literacy came as the ultimate setback," said Gnesh Man Gurung, chairperson of the Education Sub-committee of parliament's Women, Children and Social Welfare Committee.
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