IMPHAL, August 19: State Education Minister Moirangthem Okendro has congratulated the National Literacy Mission Authority, NLMA on being named for the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, 2013 for Saakshar Bharat Program.
The award will be given on September 9, 2013 at Paris.
The Education Minister was addressing a press conference today at his office chamber.
Speaking at the press conference, he said that the Saakshar Bharat (Literate India) is a flagship programme launched by the Prime Minister of India on September8, 2009, in New Delhi.
This mission is the world’s largest adult education program, which envisages making 70 million adults literate by 2017, he stated before adding that in a span of less than four years since its launch, several significant achievements have been accomplished and 17.3 million adults have already been certified as literate through assessment throughout the country.
He further said that the program is implemented in 365 districts throughout the country for the first phase where literacy of women is 50 percent.
The program is implemented in four districts of Manipur namely Chandel, Tamenglong, Thoubal and Senapati where women literacy rate is below 50 percent (based on 2001 census report).
The program is implemented through four tier administrative structures ie National Literacy Mission (NLM) at the national level, State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) at the state level and District Lok Shiksha Samiti (DLSS) at the district level and Gram Panchayat Lok Shiksha Samiti (GPLSS) at the village level, the Minister said.
There are 257 Adult Education Centres (AEC) in the state under SLMA in the above four districts, he continued.
He continued that the program aims to promote and strengthen adult education especially among women and other disadvantaged segments of the society by extending educational options to those adults who have missed the opportunity to access formal education and had crossed the age for receiving such formal education.
Speaking at the press conference, P Vaiphei, Commissioner of Education (s) said it is first of its kind to get such award.
India has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world even though India leads in producing the highest rate of literate adults for this year.
He said that as compared to other North Eastern states, Manipur leads in adult education program.