Regaining total literacy still a distant dream

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The proposal by LEAP (Lifelong Education Awareness Programme) Kerala Mission, formerly Kerala Literacy Mission, to achieve 100 percent literacy for the state in six years is unlikely to materialise as the State Government is yet to provide full financial assistance for the project.The Union Government has stopped funding the continuing education programme by the state from 2010-11 onwards. The fourth phase of the literacy programme, ‘lifelong education’, was funded by the State Government. In the current financial year, the budget allocation for LEAP Kerala Mission is `8 crore, which is only one-third of the amount required to complete one phase in a year. Mission assistant director Soman told ‘Express’ that the issue of poor funding was brought to the notice of the Assembly Subject Committee and it had given approval for more funds. According to the plan, the programme could be completed with a financial assistance of `21.45 crore which is now pending with the Finance Department. He pointed out that Kerala is the only state in the country which has entered the fourth phase of the total literacy programme. Primary education programme is continuing and in the first phase, 85,000 school dropouts had written the Class IV equivalency examination. Though 63,100 persons emerged successful in the examination, the certificates are yet to be distributed as the remuneration for preraks and assistant preraks, who trained the candidates, is yet to be distributed. Though Kerala was declared 100 per cent literate in 1991, it has come down to 93.9 per cent in the 2011 Census.According to Soman, a mass movement for literacy programme is not possible now as in the past. “Total literacy could be achieved only in a phased manner. Now, as part of the lifelong education policy, one local body is selected from the 140 constituencies and the illiterate and school dropouts are trained,’’ he said. The lifelong education could be completed only in six phases in six years. If there  is no sufficient fund, the process may prolong and will not yield the desired result. It is estimated that there are around eight lakh illiterates in the state. Identifying and training the people in the coastal and adivasi areas is a difficult task and more funds are needed to execute the project.LEAP Kerala Mission is training people for Class VII and X equivalency examinations.30,000 people have written theClass X examination and another 30,000 have registered for the next exam.