BHUBANESWAR: More than a lakh people in Odisha who never went to the school or could not complete schooling have cleared the Foundational Literacy & Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT) to be declared literate.
The examination conducted by the Education Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) was announced on Saturday. The examination is conducted under the centrally-sponsored ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram (New India Literacy Programme) of the ministry to assess basic reading, writing and numeracy skills of neo-literate.
According to reports, a total 1,17,761 neo-literates have cleared the examination conducted last month and are now certified as literates. Of them, 36,422 are male and 81,339 are female.
Another 15,849 registered learners who took the examination have been identified as those who need improvement and will reappear for FLNAT in March this year. The ministry said all the qualifying learners will receive a certificate issued by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), recognising their achievement in acquiring foundational literacy and numeracy skills.
Implemented in 2022, Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram aligns with the National Education Policy 2020 and will continue till 2027. It is a volunteer-driven programme targeting all non-literates above the age of 15, with special focus on women and educationally-backward areas.
Apart from Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram volunteers, the programme is being implemented in the state through students of various colleges and universities besides teacher training institutes who were engaged as volunteer teachers to organise teaching-learning activities for people at government schools.
Official sources said people who enrolled for the programme were also encouraged to access the learning content in the local language in online mode through the DIKSHA platform of NCERT. The examination was also held in Odia language in line with NEP’s focus on promoting multilingualism and using the mother tongue or local language as the medium of instruction.
Over 30 lakh learners appear for this important nationwide assessment every year.