A 100-day training programme to improve the basic reading and writing skills of people in Nellore has worked wonders, as the district saw a 17 percent rise in the literacy rate in just four months. Located in the Coastal Andhra region, Nellore, which is officially known as Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district, achieved this feat under an initiative named Akshara Chaitanyam, led by District Collector K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu.
THE OBJECTIVE
Akshara Chaitanyam is a step towards imparting basic education to people of the district to make them literate. This initiative was also taken up to ensure that people do not get cheated or betrayed as a result of not being well educated.
THE IDEA
According to Census 2011, Nellore district had a literacy rate of 69.15 percent, where male literacy was about 75.93 percent and that of females was 62.3 percent.
As the district was ranked 7th in the district out of 23 in literacy, the bars were set high already. However, there were some issues which IAS officer Chakradhar Babu noticed and wanted to rectify as soon as possible.
It was some time back when Mr. Babu noticed a group of people giving complaints of being cheated after putting thumb impressions on a paper without reading the content. It was the lack of education that led the people to this situation. The officer learned from the incident and decided to take steps to teach villagers the basic reading and writing skills. And a 100-day training programme by the name of Akshara Chaitanyam was launched.
OVER ONE LAKH PEOPLE BENIFITED
In an interaction with media, Mr. Babu informed that “the District Panchayat Officer acted as nodal officer of the programme under direct supervision of the Joint Collector (Development) G. Ganesh Kumar and implemented the programme in 40 mandals.”
The classes, which were held at the village secretariat level, were conducted by trained education assistants and village volunteers. In about four months, classes were provided at the time convenient to the trainees in over 8,400 centers in 40 mandals.
More than 1.3 lakh people, including 88,441 women, attended the classes at various centres all across the district. Under the programme, Rs 36.85 lakh were spent to provide books and other learning material with the help of the adult education wing.
GOOD RESULTS IN EXAMINATION
Examinations were conducted on January 8, arranging 1,746 examination centres across the district in which 1,24,270 people attended, out of which 93.80 percent people passed the examination.
After getting such successful results, the figures changed exponentially. The literacy rate shot up to 84 percent in just four months, bringing both the male and female literacy to 85.8 percent and 82.2 percent respectively.
The pass percentage was 95.01% among Scheduled Caste members and about 93% among the members of Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.
Mr. Babu reiterated his commitment to spread education. “Now we will focus on imparting literacy to those who have not been covered in the programme so far. Our aim is to continue the drive until every person in the district becomes literate.”
