The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA) is gearing up to extend the special tribal literacy programme to more tribal settlements in Wayanad district to make tribal people literate.
The State government has earmarked ₹50 lakh for the project and it aims to make nearly 18,000 tribal people in 4,000 hamlets literate. “We are planning to extend the project to 200 more tribal settlements in the second phase after the successful implementation of first phase of the project,” P. S. Sreekala, Director, KSLMA, said.
The project was launched in 2017 and as many as 4,309 of the 4,512 neoliterates, including 3,551 women, passed the first phase examination of the programme. The neoliterates of 282 settlements would appear for the Class IV equivalency course of the authority in the second phase, Dr. Sreekala said. As many as 282 instructors would train the Class IV equivalency learners.
Some 400 new instructors, including 200 tribal instructors, had been selected to teach the neoliterates and their training would be completed by the end of the week, she said.
A survey to identify the beneficiaries of the project would be held on September 23 and their classes would begin by the first week of October. Six-month classes would be provided to the learners of Class IV equivalency examination and 100 hours of classes would be provided to the neoliterates.
The most backward settlements of the Paniyas and Kattunayakkars were identified by local administrative bodies for the second phase and the list was finalised by the mission.
The mission got good response for the second phase from tribal communities at Agali, Sholayur and Puthur grama panchayats in Palakkad district, Dr. Srekala said, adding 1,560 neoliterates of 129 hamlets in those areas appeared for the exam. The results would be published on Saturday.
Moreover, 783 learners of 43 settlements were studying for Class IV equivalency examination, she added.