KOCHI: As many as 3,031 people belonging to the fishermen community will appear for Class IV equivalency qualifying exam scheduled to be held on November 25 by the State Literacy Mission. The exam will be conducted at 70 centres in Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Kollam districts.
Of the 3,031 candidates 2,638 are women. The project was implemented in 234 wards in Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Kollam districts. The Literacy Mission had deployed 204 instructors from the coastal areas who have passed the Class 10 exam to teach the candidates. As many as 1,236 people will appear for the exam in Kozhikode, while 1,152 people will write the exam in Kollam district. Ernakulam will have 643 candidates.
The project aims to educate the illiterates, dropouts, people with intellectual and physical disability and empower the coastal community. The exam will have three sections which include reading, writing and mathematics.
A candidate should score at least 30 marks to clear the exam. To clear the reading test the candidate should get nine out of 30 marks and to clear the writing test one has to score 12 out of 40 marks. The pass mark for mathematics is 9. The project was implemented in Thiruvananthapuram, Malappuram and Kasargod in the first phase in which 3,568 people cleared the literacy test.
“As per the 2011 census, there are 18 lakh illiterates in Kerala. The literacy rate in the coastal area is low and the Literacy Mission decided to give special thrust to the programme in the coastal areas,” said Literacy Mission director Dr P S Sreekala.