[lang_en]Shimla: The state would fall far short of achieving a literacy target of 96.74 percent by 2012 as there was a huge gap of 9.86 lakh people in the age bracket of 15 to 45 who were still to be covered under a literacy program, says Kuldeep Tanwar, of Gyan Vigyan Samithi an NGO focused on literacy.
Speaking on the eve of International Literacy Day, Tanwar said, “By end of 11th plan, the state would at the most achieve a literacy level of 84 % under the given conditions because the adult literacy program is still not able to cover a large section of the people.”
Presently the state has a literacy level of 76.5% and the task of overtaking Maharashtra and Kerala in literacy levels was easier said that would likely happen. Where as the Sarv Shiksha Abihyan program was catering to the children education till the age of 15, there was no program for the adult group above this age, he said.
“Avenues for education were not reaching socially, economically and geographically backward people. Women continued to be among the most educationally deprived,” he said.
Tanwar demanded that Aganwari workers be considered as teachers.
“Since Aganwaris were involved in imparting pre-school education to children of 3 to 7 years of age, the workers in these centers should also be considered as teachers.”
There were 18248 Anganwari centres in the state and on an average there were atleast 20 children registered in each on them, he added.[/lang_en]
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads the team of media professionals at Hill Post.
In a career spanning over two decades through all formats of journalism in Electronic, Print and Online Media, he brings with him enough experience to steer this platform. He lives in Shimla.
