BENGALURU: Adult education in the form of informal and non-formal education has made a long evolutionary journey since Independence to help individuals and communities to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. Later in the second half of the 20th century, adult literacy was used as a powerful tool in many countries of the world to educate adults not only in basic literacy but also as a powerful tool for political awareness as part of a movement for liberation and freedom.
It is important to note that a Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paulo Freire, revolutionised the idea of Adult Education through a concept called Conscientization; an emancipatory educational process where individuals and communities develop a critical awareness of their social, political, and economic realities to understand and challenge the root causes of oppression and inequality. It involves critical consciousness through dialogue, reflection and action, ultimately empowering people to work towards liberation and social justice. Later, the process of adult education became a comprehensive canvas for providing education for all throughout life as life-long learning.
In Karnataka, many pioneers worked on the issue and played a decisive role in addressing it and improving the literacy rate. However, the problem of illiteracy especially among women is an issue of concern. The statistics on literacy in Karnataka show a relatively poor scenario.
According to the 2011 census, Karnataka’s literacy rate for individuals aged seven and above stood at around 75% -- 82% for males and 68% for females (a gap of 14% percentage points). The highest literacy is in Dakshina Kannada (88.6 %), Bengaluru Urban (87.7 %) and Udupi (86.2 %). The mid-range literacy is in Chikkamagaluru (79.3 %) and Haveri (77.6 %). Lower literacy rates are seen in northeastern districts like Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Ballari, Raichur, Vijayapura and Bagalkot (ranging from 57-68%).
According to the National Family Health Survey (2019-20) figures, the percentage of literate women is 76.7% versus men 88.5% (a gap of 11.8 pp). Women who completed more than 10 years of schooling are around 50.2% versus men 56.5% (gap 6.3 pp). Whereas in Tamil Nadu, female literacy is 84% as compared to 90.7% of male literacy (gap 6.7 pp).
Considering the current unsatisfactory state of adult literacy in several districts of the state, it is imperative that Karnataka revives and strengthens its programmes to impart basic literacy with particular focus on women and socially marginalised communities. The revamped adult literacy programme should not be viewed merely as imparting basic literacy skills. It is indeed a programme of empowerment of the marginalised. Towards this, the state must adopt district and block specific plans to achieve total literacy. The Directorate of Mass Education needs to be restored as a separate directorate which played a key role in the past. The Kalyana-Karnataka needs a different strategy altogether where each district and block requires its own micro-plan with a workable action plan.
Prof Niranjanaradhya VP, Development Educationist