A five day workshop on resource development for New India Literacy Program (NILP) for adult education, jointly organized by State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi, began at the SCERT auditorium, Bemina here on Monday.
Pertinently, the Ministry of Education has replaced “Adult Education” with "Education for all" in order to include school dropouts from the age of fifteen onwards. The National Centre for Literacy Cell (NCLC), a constitutional body of NCERT headed by Professor Usha Sharma, is overseeing the NILP.
Principal Secretary, School Education Department, Alok Kumar, while elaborating on broad contours of the event, said the workshop will be very helpful in assisting school dropouts of all literacy levels including semi-literates, neo-literates and non-literates to acquire crucial skills necessary to conduct life more effectively.
“The school dropout rate at the secondary level being at 17 per cent in J&K, programs like NILP are increasingly important,” Kumar asserted. “It should be our top priority to cater to this section of the society to make ‘Education For All’ a reality.”
The NCERT team, which consists of Senior Consultant, Dr. Bani Bora, Consultant, Dr. Yasmin Ashraf, Junior Project Fellows, Jyoti Tiwari and Shiv Shrivastav, will closely monitor the work of approximately 20 subject experts from both SCERTs of Kashmir and Jammu over the course of five days as they develop the NILP resource material in kashmiri and Dogri language.
Before being finalized, the resource material's first draft, also known as the primer, would go through a number of checks and reviews by the experts. Following approval, the content will be posted on the Diksha portal and published as a book as well.
A similar exercise was conducted to prepare a module to help understand how to go about the primer before the program is put to practice.The five year initiative, beginning this year, was approved by the Indian government to address all facets of adult education in accordance with the National Education Policy 2020, also known as NEP 2020, and the Budget Announcements 2021–2022.
The introduction of online modules covering the full spectrum of adult education was announced in order to boost resource accessibility.
NILP's primary goals are to impart not only the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy but also other skills essential for 21st-century citizenship—critical life skills namely financial literacy, digital literacy, commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and education, and family welfare.
In addition to advancement of fundamental education and vocational skills at the preparatory, middle and secondary levels it also includes engaging holistic adult education courses in the arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, and recreation, as well as other topics of interest or utility to local learners, like more advanced content on important life skills.
NILP’s expected total expenditure is around Rs. 1038 crore, of which, the Central portion for the FYs 2022–27 is Rs. 700 crore and the State part is Rs. 338 crore. States and UTs will have their respective State Centres for Literacy (SCL) to implement the program.
“The scheme will be implemented through volunteerism through online mode,” Dr Yasmin said. “All material and resources shall be provided digitally for easy access to registered volunteers through easily accessible digital modes.”