HYDERABAD: AHEAD of the New Year 2020, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday expressed his wish for Telangana to become a 100 per cent literate State. At present, Telangana has the third-highest illiterate population in the country after AP and Bihar according to a recently released household social consumption data on education pertaining to 2017-18 by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The literacy rate of Telangana is 72.8 per cent, which means 27 per cent population is illiterate. The challenge is bigger in rural areas, where the literacy rate is lower by almost 23 per cent compared to urban areas.
A huge disparity exists of around 20 per cent between literacy rate of men and women. A person who can read and write a simple message in any language with understanding, is considered literate in the National Sample Survey (NSS) of the government. Dean, Faculty of Education at Osmania University, Prof T Mrunalini, pointed out that study material to make a person literate, prepared by the Literacy Mission Authority is already available. She said if one hour is spent daily, then, in the span of a month an illiterate person can be made literate in his native language.
She further said, “There are 210 BEd colleges in the State with approximately 100 students each. These close to 20,000 students can be used for improvement of literacy rate as they spend 120 days across four semesters in different places across the State, as part of the literacy outreach programme.” However, retired Osmania University professor and activist, Purushottam Reddy is cynical, pointing out that the idea of ‘Each One, Teach One’ for increasing literacy rate is an oft-repeated phrase.
He said, “After more than 70 years of independence, is it still a new goal to be taken up? The scope of literacy needs to be widened. No child should be left out of the fold of formal education, and adult education should be promoted. People need to be taught skills that empower them and enable them to be on their own.” To make the State 100 per cent literate is not going to be a tough task, and can be achieved with proper utilisation of existing government institutions without any extra investment, believes Dr S Galab, visiting professor and former director, Center for Economics and Social Studies.
Pensioners say they will volunteer for 'Each One Teach One'
Representatives of the Government Pensioners Association and Telangana Pensioners Central
Association met the Telangana State Planning Board Vice-Chairman, B Vinod Kumar on Wednesday and
assured him that their members will support the CM’s call for ‘Each one, Teach one’. They said they have
3.46 lakh pensioners, and their members will volunteer to teach people and make the State 100 per cent
literate. The Telangana State Teachers Union also met Kumar and assured support on the same
