COIMBATORE: It’s been only a few months since 'Karpom Elutuvom Iyakkam', a scheme to impart basic education to the uneducated was initiated, but government school teachers are already urging the Non-Formal and Adult Education wing to stop the scheme citing it has not yielded desired results. Also, there are allegations that volunteers were not being paid.
A primary school teacher in Madukkarai block said, "The scheme is aimed to provide basic education to the uneducated aged above 15 to 55. Interested volunteers came forward as per the official's request in the district. However, it did not give a minimum level of honorarium to the volunteers and left them dissatisfied. They left from the scheme one by one, though the 40:60 fund was allocated by the State and Central government respectively."
She added, "After this, the officials roped in government school teachers. Earlier, we were taking classes in the morning but they said they have to work for their livelihood. So, we changed class time to the evening. But, they are not coming to class now, citing various reasons.”
Tamilaga Aasriyar Kootani, Perur Education District Secretary T Rajasekaran said, "The class duration is three months. Earlier, volunteers and the uneducated were interested in the scheme in the first month of December 2020 - January 2021. The scheme also provides educational materials to the beneficiaries. However, the implementation of the plan has failed as the department has not allocated adequate funds for the scheme and volunteers are dissatisfied with the officials."
He alleged that the uneducated started to avoid the classes and now this scheme is functioning as an eyewash. “Teachers are going to centres, but the beneficiaries are not attending. Now this scheme is not active," he added.In Coimbatore, officials have set a target of teaching 12,000 people in 610 schools.
Denying the teachers' allegations, Director of Non-Formal Adult Education, V C Rameshwara Murugan, told TNIE that in as many as 15,143 centres, 3.28 lakh uneducated are learning basic education and there has been a good response from them.
"Volunteers has been imparting basic numbers and writing their names, etc by the given materials. Besides, we are also conducting an examination for them on March 27," he added.
About the honorarium to volunteers, he said, "We have planned to give certificates to them and as it is a central government scheme, the honorarium will not be given. However, the State government has plans to provide them honorariums to motivate them."