HT Correspondent
TEZPUR, Feb 13: The New India Literacy Programme (NILP), a Government of India-approved scheme for the fiscal years 2022 to 2027 introduced by the Ministry of Education to cover different aspects of adult education in the country, is underway in Sonitpur district, along with the rest of the state. Designed to align with the 2020 National Education Policy, the programme aims to impart basic literacy to the youth and cover non-literates in the age group of 15 years and above across all states and union territories of India.
District-level officials involved in the programme emphasised its significance, noting that the need for it arose from the significant number of non-literates in the country above 15 years old, according to the 2011 census, which was 25.76 crore. “NILP is initiated as an attempt to help youngsters and working adults learn to write and read, which will be put into practice through volunteerism in both online and offline forms,” said Prafulla Keot, the programme coordinator for both Sonitpur and Biswanath districts. Workshops, training, and orientation have been arranged for over 22 teachers from different schools in both districts to conduct surveys to identify targeted non-literates.
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Keot further informed that after identifying non-literates, separate training and orientation programmes on how to engage with non-literates of different age groups would be organised for volunteer teachers. “We have a target of over 30 thousand non-literates in Sonitpur and Biswanath districts. I am optimistic that our teachers/surveyors will soon complete the survey to provide genuine data for enhancing the remaining parts,” Keot added.
Data have been uploaded through an app called ULLAS (Understanding of Lifelong Learning for All in Society), and besides teaching basic reading, writing, and numeracy, the programme aims to develop other life skills such as financial literacy, healthcare, digital literacy, vocational skills, childcare, and family welfare, among others. The development of vocational skills will facilitate employment opportunities, which would include courses in arts, technology, science, sports, recreation, and culture, as well as other areas to promote continuous learning.
“The New India Literacy Programme (NILP) will make efforts towards achieving the literacy target for the next five years, which is five crore learners through OTLAS (Online Teaching, Learning, and Assessment System) in collaboration with NIOS, NCERT, and National Informatics Centre,” Keot emphasised. Several training programmes have been conducted to date to involve participants in the nationwide programme, and already, 56 MRPs from both districts have been trained in two phases for survey and teaching-learning processes.
However, despite the progress, certain challenges have been encountered in conducting the process. The teachers involved as surveyors have alleged that due to problems associated with the ULLAS/NILP website/app, many teachers have not been able to upload their data. “We have manually completed our tasks, but as we are unable to upload the data due to technical issues, our work is yet to be recognised; therefore, technical experts involved in this programme should sincerely rectify the problem for the early completion of the programme in our districts,” the surveyors stated.
