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Uttaranchal has a literacy rate which is one of the highest in the country despite the difficult mountain terrain and lack of resource, said Mr. Vishnu Kumar, Director, Directorate of Adult Education, Government of India.
Speaking at the Inauguration of a five-day training workshop at the State Resource Centre (SRC) for Adult Education in the Doon valley this morning, Mr.Vishnu Kumar said an overall percentage of 72 has been revealed in Uttaranchal by 2001 census. The percentage for men was 84 while that for women was 60 he said. Addressing the participants from State Resource Centres from Twelve states of the country i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Orissa, Rajsthan, Haryana, Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir etc. Mr. Kumar said, the role of Trainers of the State Resource Centre (SRC) was extremely important in adult literacy as they were the ones who trained key resource persons who in turn trained "preraks" to go in the field and teach adults. He emphasized on the formation of separate directorate of adult education for the state of Uttaranchal.
The five day training of trainers (TOT) programme has been organised in the Doon valley by the SRC for Adult Education which began working here more than a year ago at the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK) under the ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Government of India.
Speaking at the function, Uttaranchal's Education Secretary Mr. N. Ravishankar said that the education department in the new state was aiming at convergence of all education programmes under the canopy for the Education For All (EFA) society, which has been created by the state government. "The cabinet is soon to give its approval to this approach of converging all educational programmes including basic, adult and non-formal education", he said. He also said that as soon as the formal structure of education is formed process of establishment of SLMA will be initiated.
Mr. Ravishankar said that making literacy job-oriented was extremely important to improve the economic condition of the people in the hill region, "skill development is a must for all literacy programmes", he said.
The Directorate of Adult Education, Ministry of HRD in collaboration with the State Resource Centre for Uttaranchal, has organized the TOT programme.
Addressing the workshop, SRC, chairman Mr. Avdhash Kaushal said that the hill communities in all the thirteen districts of the state were highly aware people and even had self-imposed rules to save the environment and forests resulting more than 65 percent forest cover, while in the mother state U.P. it is less than 4 percent. This is inspite of the fact that more than 70% of the total population of Uttaranchal is dependant on forest and forest produce.
The focus during the workshop would be on training methodologies and the latest techniques of training the trainers, said Mrs. Kusum Vir, Joint Director of the Directorate of Adult Education, Government of India.
Dr. Naseem Ahmad, Director of the State Resource Centre (SRC) for Uttaranchal, Dehra Dun, said that the adult education programmes in all the districts in the hill state were carrying on at satisfactory pace.
Mrs. Manju Dhoundiyal, Education expert from Bangalore, Mrs. Purvi, Expert, PRIA, New Delhi, Miss Anita Priyadarshini, Director, SRC, Jaipur and Mr. Harpal Singh, Additional Director, DAE were among the eminent participants at the workshop.
Preparation of materials for the neo literates, people's participations, and innovative programmes in continuing education and evaluation of training would be among the sessions at the workshop.