BHAKTAPUR: Nepal is all set to celebrate the next fiscal year as the ‘Illiteracy Eradication Year’.

While unveiling the government policies and programmes, President Ram Baran Yadav had announced that the new fiscal year 2014-15 will be celebrated as ‘Illiteracy Eradication Year’.

Baburam Poudel, Director, Non Formal Education Centre, today said various programmes will be organised to celebrate the coming year as ‘Illiteracy Eradication Year’. “We will organise literacy programmes in 17 districts in Tarai in the new fiscal year with an aim to eradicate illiteracy in those districts,” he said. “Siraha, Saptari, Bara, Mahottari, Kapilvastu, Morang, Dang and Nawalparasi are some of the 17 districts in Tarai where focused programme for illiteracy eradication will be launched.”

“Since media had played a significant role in conveying messages about literacy classes, we are going to conduct media campaign in the beginning of the next fiscal year and encourage people to take ownership of literacy programmes in the coming days,” he noted.

Similarly, NFEC is also going to observe the first week of the next fiscal year as ‘Literacy Week’.

According to Non-formal Education Centre, the country has 3,140,508 adult illiterates aged between 15 and 60. “We plan to make 1,693,165 people literate within this fiscal year,” Poudel said. “Though the literate population will be calculated at the end of this fiscal year, I am sure that 85 per cent of them will be literate by then,” he added. NFEC will continue to focus on making the rest of 1,447,343 residents literate by 2015, the target set by the government to make Nepal illiteracy-free country.

A few days ago, Minister for Education Chitralekha Yadav, amid a programme, had declared Lalitpur a fully literate district in the country. Palpa, Sindhupalchowk, Syangja, Dhading and Mustang are also on way to be declared fully literate districts.

Making citizens literate
> Literacy programmes in 17 districts to be launched in Tarai in the new fiscal year with an aim to eradicate illiteracy in these districts
> Country’s 3,140,508 people aged between 15 and 60 are still illiterate
> Government plans to make 1,693,165 people literate within fiscal year 2014-15
> The focus will continue on making the remaining 1,447,343 residents literate by 2015

source: the himalayan times,2 july 2014