E-Paper
It’s classroom time for 48k unschooled people in Ludhiana
Ludhiana accounts for 12 per cent of the total target set for Punjab, followed by Amritsar contributing 8.6 % by educating 34,368 individuals and Gurdaspur contributing 7.9 % by educating 31,714 individuals.
The Ludhiana district will provide formal education to around 48,000 unschooled individuals under the “New India literacy programme” (NILP). The central government-sponsored scheme aims to impart basic literacy and numeracy skills to approximately 5 crore non-literate individuals aged 15 years and above across the country.
The Union ministry of education (MOE) has mandated Punjab to make around four lakh individuals literate in the academic sessions 2022-23 and 2023-24. Achieving this target will involve both online and offline modes of education, with the active participation of volunteers and students from 8th to 12th classes, as well as students of Diploma in elementary education. School-level nodal incharges and school-level nodal officers will be executing the program.
With different targets assigned to each district based on population, Ludhiana accounts for 12 per cent of the total target set for Punjab, followed by Amritsar contributing 8.6 % by educating 34,368 individuals and Gurdaspur contributing 7.9 % by educating 31,714 individuals.
Dimple Madan, DEO secondary Ludhiana, disclosed that each school head and principal will be designated as nodal officers for the project.
A specialised training session focusing on the NILP was recently held at BVM Senior Secondary School’s auditorium under the of DEO secondary, Dimple Madan. The session saw resource persons from the district institute of elementary training (DIET) - Kanwar Randeep Singh, Subodh Kumar, and Varinder Kumar - imparting training to all school heads and principals. The training covered various aspects of the NILP project, including the utilisation of the online portal and mobilisation of volunteers to identify individuals in need of literacy skills at the grassroots level.
Presentations were employed to facilitate the training, and participants’ queries were addressed by the resource persons. Madan urged the school heads and principals to prioritise the NILP and work diligently to achieve the set targets through cooperation, hard work and academic networking.
According to education ministry data, India currently has 15 to 20 crore illiterate individuals. To facilitate the NILP, ₹150 crore has been allocated for 2022-23, of which almost ₹80 crore has been released to the states to start the initiative. The scheme operates on a volunteer-driven basis, as the budget does not encompass funding for hiring teachers. To bridge this gap, the education ministry encourages students and teachers to volunteer their time to teach adults. Furthermore, a credit-based framework is being implemented in collaboration with the University Grants Commission to incentivise college students’ participation.
