Maharashtra teachers irked over adult literacy progress inspection plan

The inspection, they say, will increase their burden of non-educational responsibilities such as enrolling and evaluating learners and uploading the data

Mumbai: Teachers of government and state-aided schools in Maharashtra are up in arms over the state education department’s decision to carry out physical inspection of adult literacy classes running under the ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram or New India Literacy Programme. The inspection, they say, will increase their burden of non-educational responsibilities such as enrolling and evaluating learners and uploading the data on the ULLAS app, leaving little time for teaching; it will also compromise the safety of school students, who are enrolled as volunteer teachers under the scheme.

Teachers up in arms over adult literacy prog inspection plan. Representative Image

Officials in the education department, however, insist that the inspection will push schools which are lagging in implementation to step up and start adult literacy classes.

Lofty goals

Union minister of state for education Jayant Chaudhary on Monday told the Lok Sabha that India’s literacy rate had climbed significantly in recent years, from 67.77% in 2011 to 77.5% in 2023-24, with female literacy improving significantly from 57.93% to 70.4%. He attributed the rise, particularly in adult literacy, to the ULLAS scheme, which was launched by the union government in April 2022 under the National Education Policy 2020.

The scheme focuses on imparting functional literacy to adults aged 15 years and above who missed formal schooling, with government and state-aided schools being the implementing unit. It is entirely volunteer-driven, with teachers assigned responsilibity for identifying volunteer teachers – students of class five and above, registering them via the ULLAS app, and training them to teach adults at different levels of learning. Teachers are also required to identify and register learners, evaluate their performance and upload the data on the ULLAS app.

Practical problems

In Maharashtra, the number of learners registered under the scheme since its rollout in October 2023 has crossed 1.04 million. But teachers and education activists say the actual number of learners who attained functional literacy may only be a fraction of this number as the scheme is beset with practical challenges.

“It is very difficult to find learners in rural areas as most adults work on daily wages,” said a Zilla Parishad school teacher. Though his school registered several illiterate adults as learners, most of them have not been able to complete their courses due to livelihood pressures. “The education department’s decision to undertake physical inspection of adult literacy classes has put us in a quandary,” he said.

Jagdidh Indalkar, principal of Lion MP Butha high school in Sion, said even city-based schools running adult literacy classes were facing similar problems. “Even though we are willing to participate in the scheme, it is very difficult to gather a number of adults together at the same time as most of them work on daily wages, in different shifts,” he said.

Lion MP Butha high school had enrolled 10 –12 learners from nearby slums in the previous academic year, said Indalkar. “But they were all migrants and students found it very difficult to teach them. l had no option but to assign teachers with them.”

Burden on students, teachers

Sujata Patil, headmistress of SES High School in Kurul-Alibag, criticised the education department for pressuring schools to register students as volunteer teachers.

“Is it right to make students, who are themselves learning, teach adults? And for this, make them peruse pedagogic materials running into 100-150 pages, that too in pdf format on their mobiles,” she asked.

Since classes must be conducted close to learners’ place of residence instead of the implementing school, the scheme also compromises the safety of students enrolled as volunteer teachers. “Who will be responsible for students’ safety if something happens to them while they are taking classes,” asked Patil.

Bhausaheb Chaskar, a teacher and education activist, raised concern over the increasing burden of non-educational tasks he and his colleagues were contending with owing to the ULLAS scheme.

“All the work on registrations, training volunteer teachers, and tracking the progress of learners leaves us with little or no time to teach our students,” he said, urging the government to calculate the loss of educational hours for students enrolled in government and stat-aided schools owing to the scheme.

Wakeup call

A senior officer from the education department, however, defended the decision to undertake physical inspection, saying it was everyone’s duty to contribute to the national mission.

“We observed that some schools halted neighbourhood visits and were not monitoring the scheme properly or working according to guidelines. The inspection will force them to shape up,” he said, requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to the media.