Around 37,472 neo-literates participated in Basic literacy Assessment conducted by the State literacy Mission (SlM) on March 30. However, the number of appeared candidates this time is significantly less as compared with the last assessment conducted six months ago.
The Sakshar Bharat programme under the State literacy mission is operating in six districts of the State. The SlM organises literacy assessments in every six months in these districts. In the examination conducted on September 2013, 46963 candidates appeared while 37,472 candidates appeared in the examination conducted on March 30.
When questioned about this drop of about 10,000 candidates, the State Project Manager SlM SB Joshi told The Pioneer that the drop this year was because of less number of registered candidates.
He said 57,871 candidates had enrolled for September 2013 assessment while only 46,963 candidates were enrolled this time. He said that the SlM this year curtailed non serious registrations in order to save the stationery.
The Sakshar Bharat programme is working in the six districts of the Uttarakhand where the levels of literacy are low. The programme is being operated in 2731 village Panchayats of Tehri, Bageshwar, Champawat, Udham Singh Nagar, Haridwar and Uttarkashi districts of the State. The programme is chiefly volunteer based who teach the enrolled illiterates at the lok Shiksha Centres of their locality.
The Sakshar Bharat programme is mandated to increase the literacy level in the low literacy districts to 80%, reduce the gap between the literacy levels of males and females and reduce the social, gender and regional disparity.