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Kerala panchayat sets a primary education model

Kerala, which became a model for the county when it achieved total literacy in June 1991, is all set to go the next mile.

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After total literacy, Nilambur aims to set another national record.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala, which became a model for the county when it achieved total literacy in June 1991, is all set to go the next mile. Nilambur in Malappuram district will be the first panchayat in the country to impart basic  education to all its inhabitants, when 1500 persons appear for primary-level examinations in October. The National Literacy Mission has recognised the massive mission, Jyotir Gamaya, as a pilot project for the country.

On World Literacy Day on Friday, 1000 neo-literates in Nilambur, famous for its teak plantations from the Raj, wrote to the President, the Prime Minister, Kerala chief minister and education minister in their handwriting. It would be these people, scribbling the letters they have once learned and forgotten, who would carry the nation's ambitious literacy programme forward.

"We claim to have achieved total literacy 15 years ago. But there were people in my panchayat who could not fill up an application or write their names. Many of them had attended the literacy programmes, but trailed later on. We even found people untouched by the movement in the early 1990s. There were 800 fully illiterate persons in the panchayat," Nilambur panchayat president Aryadan Shoukat told DNA.

Jyotir Gamaya, which started on January 26, identified illiterates and dropouts in the panchayat through a comprehensive survey involving 2500 volunteers. Of the 1500 beneficiaries, 800 didn't know how to write their names, something many of them had learned in 1991. The backward area comprised sections of society left out of the literacy euphoria in the state: tribals, backward communities and linguistic minorities.

Many of them had learned to write their names and lined up to make the state 'totally literate', but went their way once the celebration died down. Now Nilambur is showing the state's continuing education programme is the only model to keep the fire alight - to set newer and farther goals.

"Our volunteers had a hard time convincing the tribals that we were not among those crooks who siphoned off all their due. Then we evolved vocational modules depending upon the requirements of local communities. And the most interesting part is our programme has not got a single paisa from the government. We build our efforts on voluntary service and local sponsors," Shaukat said.

The curricula, developed by the State Literacy Mission, comprise of English, Malayalam, mathematics and environmental studies. There are 142 study centres and 300 facilitators across the panchayat. Though the programme primarily focuses on the 15-50 age group, it also encompasses current school dropouts. Children are brought back to classrooms and special tuitions are arranged for them.

The Jyotir Gamaya centres will continue to run even after the panchayat has achieved total primary education. The centres will facilitate upper primary and matriculation level education for those who want to pursue their studies further.

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