In a major move towards eradicating illiteracy from the country, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Thursday said that India will achieve 100 percent literacy by 2022.
“Different literacy programmes are running in the country for the last several years, and even after 70 years of the Independence, about nine crore people are still illiterate in the country, which is a matter of great concern,” Javadekar said.
The MHRD is working on a module to achieve the 100 percent literacy target by motivating school children to teach their parents if they are illiterate, or any other family member.
“We have decided to eradicate illiteracy innovatively. As most of the children have started going to school, they would be encouraged to teach their family members, parents with the help of simplified teaching modules,” he added.
The module is the final stage. The MHRD is planning to launch a campaign ‘Khud Pado, Parivar Padao’ after the completion of the module.
“The MHRD is developing a training module for schoolchildren who would be ready by this year-end,” he said, adding, “The module would be for students of Class 6 to 12.”
As part of the module, study material and training kits would be provided to knowledge seekers. The schoolchildren would also be exposed to different training methods in their respective schools.
“We are mulling to provide incentives to children, who would come forward to teach their parents or any known illiterate person. The method would help in building confidence among parents or known persons to learn basics of education from their sons or daughters,” he added.
According to reports, India’s literacy rate at present is about 74 percent with Kerala achieving a maximum literacy rate of 93 percent and Bihar being the least literate state with a 63 percent literacy rate.
