God’s own country that led the way by achieving complete literacy way back in 1991 has once shown that it is possible to achieve complete literacy even at the primary school level. The state took on the challenge, that other states too face, and has achieved complete literacy at the primary school level. But how did tiny state do it? Kerala State Literacy Mission, the nodal agency for conducting continuing education programmes, launched a special scheme Athulyam in October, 2014. As per the scheme, the literacy mission identified people who had not completed their primary education. They were given five months of training, enabling them to attend the fourth equivalency examination. Accordingly, the literacy mission enrolled two lakh people into Athulyam, and gave them a fourth equivalency programme, in a year.
However, the Kerala government’s claim that the state has achieved complete primary education is a bit dubious. The reason? Athulyam was actually launched in 2006 in Nilambur panchayat in Malappuram district as a pilot project where the panchayat identified about 2,000 men and women who had dropped out of primary school. In two years the literacy mission ensured that all candidates in the panchayat attained fourth grade equivalency which was duly verified by an external agency. In the actual project rolled out in 2014, no such verification was done to check the veracity of the government’s claim. Barring this, the achievement — if found to be completely true — needs to be complimented.
This a model that other states, especially Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam which rank low on the primary education levels in the country, could follow. The bane is universal — the number of children joining the education system, low retention and high drop-out rates. Every state has its own set of unique challenges and education is a state subject. However, the way to overcome these is: one, political will with complete sincerity of purpose, and two, an attitude among the citizens towards education, that it is the liberator from shackles of ignorance, poverty, and social and economic exclusion. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) too could take lessons from Athulyam.