RAMECHHAP: The National Literacy Campaign, a government mission to eradicate illiteracy across the country, has remained confined to papers in Ramechhap district.

The programme that was launched to end illiteracy in as many as 14 VDCs of the district has failed to show results. The programme remained ineffective as it failed to draw attention of the illiterate general public, the core target group.

Moreover, the ground results of the campaign were found to be opposite to what the District Education Office claimed. For instance, the DEO had declared Lakhanpur VDC as the first VDC to have 100 per cent literacy, but in reality majority of locals in the VDC cannot read and write.

Aimala Tamang of Lakhanpur has been regularly attending the classes, but confesses that she can neither read nor write. “We were told to join the class, hence, I am attending it. There are many friends who are attending classes like me but can’t even write their names,” she said.

Lakhanpur was declared cent per cent literate VDC at a special function attended by Education Minister Madhav Prasad Paudel five days ago. Bishnu Gautam, head teacher at local Kalika Higher Secondary School claimed that though the village has not attained 100 per cent literacy, the situation has improved.

Of 9,000 illiterate people from all 14 VDCs, 6,400 are literate now, according to the District Education Office.

However, the locals say that the DEO data cannot was unreliable as there were only around eight students in many classes when the number was presented to be twenty five.

Hemanta Budhathoki, Deputy Secretary at the District Education Office, said they couldn’t achieve the goal because the villagers were not interested in attending classes regularly.

The government had initiated the literacy campaign in 55 VDCs four years ago. Budhathoki said that they were working intensively to declare Ramechhap as the first district to be cent per cent literate in the country.

Claims and counterclaims
> The literacy programme launched in 14 VDCs of the district has failed to show results
> According to the District Education Office, of 9,000 illiterate people from all 14 VDCs, 6,400 are literate now, but locals say they the data is unreliable
> The DEO has declared Lakhanpur as the first VDC to have 100 per cent literacy, but majority of locals in the VDC cannot read and write
> Locals say DEO presented wrong data — there were around eight students in many classes but the office in its report has said there were 25
> Government officials blame the villagers for not showing interest in attending the classes

source: the himalayan times,18 jan 2014