Panaji: Goa has become the second state in India to be officially declared fully literate under the ULLAS (Understanding Lifelong Learning for All in Society) initiative.
“Our sustained collective efforts to strengthen the education sector with new advancements, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 have yielded results,” chief minister Pramod Sawant said on Friday, commemorating the state’s 39th Statehood Day.
Goa, which was elevated from a union territory (UT) to a state in 1987, became the second state after Mizoram to be declared a fully functionally literate state.
Joint secretary of India’s education ministry Archana Awasthi said that Goa has met the criteria to be declared a state that is fully literate. Under the Centre’s ULLAS scheme, a state is considered fully literate when its literacy rate exceeds 95%.
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Goa has achieved a 99.5% literacy rate. “After identifying 6,299 illiterate individuals, 2,136 of them were provided training. 82 Panchayats have achieved 100% literacy, while others have recorded high literacy rates exceeding the national benchmark of 95%,” state council for education, research and training (SCERT), director Meghana Shetgaonkar said.
The ULLAS scheme is for individuals aged 15 and above who have somehow lost the opportunity to go to school and have been left behind in literacy. It provides them a second chance to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully to society. It works under the vision --- volunteerism.
{{/usCountry}}The ULLAS scheme is for individuals aged 15 and above who have somehow lost the opportunity to go to school and have been left behind in literacy. It provides them a second chance to learn, grow, and contribute meaningfully to society. It works under the vision --- volunteerism.
{{/usCountry}}Sawant said that Goa had achieved around 94% literacy earlier this year and identified people, including those above 80, who were then given reading and writing classes to help get literate. “I thank those especially those above 80 who have taken these classes at a late stage in life and decided to become literate,” Sawant added.