Out of 5,173,979 people in the age group of 15-60 identified as illiterate in the National Census in 2011, 4,785,352 people were made literate through the literacy campaigns in the intervening period till 2015, claims the report of the Non Formal Education Center (NFEC), the government body that conducts the adult literacy campaign."The literacy campaign has produced good results," said the NFEC Director Baburam Poudel, unveiling the report on Thursday. He added that the targeted people in the age group needing literacy classes have now been brought down to eight percent.
To meet the government's commitment under the Education for All Goal 2015, the literacy mission must attain total literacy target in the specified adult age group by the end of December this year. As per the NFEC, there are still 388,627 people who cannot read and write.
Poudel expressed confidence that those lagging behind would be covered before January, 2016.
Although the campaign has been criticized for over stating the achievement, the officials said they have avoided the past mistakes in preparing the report. "The report is capable to face any challenge," said Poudel.
The total number of illiterate people in Siraha has been reduced to 4,816, claims the report, a vast improvement over 2011 census data that showed 1,87,243 adult people as illiterate in the district. The data claims that now only 2.6 percent people need literacy classes there.
The progress in Saptari is equally noteworthy. Only 3,855 people are now required to be put through literacy classes in the district, though as many as 170,868 were reported to be illiterate in 2011.
Nuwakot, which is set to become 19th district to be declared as total literate this week, has only 763 illiterate adults, NFEC has reported.
There were 81,290 people unable to read or write their names in the district until four years ago. The community learning centers adopted the intense teach-one-each-one approach to bring down the adult illiteracy in the district, officials said.
As of now, 18 districts have been declared total literate after they met the target of 95 percent or above literacy in the targeted group. As many as 55 districts are in line to meet the target in a couple of months.
While the NFEC's move to declare total literate districts has not been free of controversy, the districts go through four layers of verification, including monitoring from the third party, before they are accorded the total literate status, said Lalitpur District Education Officer Shiva Sapkota.
The decision to declare Lalitpur a total literate district last year drew severe criticisms.
Meanwhile, the last phase of literacy campaign in some 17 districts that was halted after the earthquake would resume from November.
The multi-billion rupees campaign of the government, which has already spent over Rs 6 billion since 2009, received Rs 360 million this year alone.
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