NEW DELHI: Pointing out that India still has the largest number of illiterate persons in the world, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that the literacy drive should become a people’s movement.
The Vice President urged all stakeholders, including the private sector, to come forward and supplement the government’s work in the field of adult education and skills training. Stressing the need to make every adult literate, he also highlighted the need to focus on digital literacy and financial literacy among the masses.
Addressing the gathering after presenting the prestigious Nehru and Tagore Literacy Awards in the national capital, Naidu said that it was disappointing that despite making great progress in various fields like IT and digitization, India still has the largest number of illiterate persons in the world.
Calling for urgent steps to address this challenge, he wanted the literacy drive to become a people’s movement. “Every educated youth in villages and colonies should come forward and teach at least one person from their localities or communities how to write and, how to operate digital devices and how to avail themselves of benefits of government schemes,” he said.
Terming it as their PSR (Personal Social Responsibility), Naidu said, “‘Each one-teach one’ should not merely remain a slogan, rather it should become a motivating force for the youth.”
Naidu also advised schools to encourage their students to begin adult education drives in their areas on weekends. “Students should be given some extra marks for such activities,” he said.
Praising all awardees for their noteworthy contribution to the cause of adult education, the Vice President asked everyone to resolve to make India a fully literate and educated nation.
Apart from illiteracy, the Vice President also emphasized the need to address various other challenges on priority such as poverty, urban-rural divide, social discrimination and gender discrimination.
Terming literacy as a precondition for skill education, the Vice President said that it not only instils confidence in a person but also helps in making one’s social life more active and dignified.
Praising the New Education Policy – 2020 for its due emphasis on various aspects of adult education, Naidu said that this approach opens new vistas of growth and development through availing lifelong opportunities of socio-economic and cultural development.
“It recommends multiple avenues including crowd funding and utilising online and app-based technology, satellite based television channels, online study resources and libraries for the development and promotion of adult education centres,” he added.