Education, Careers & Professional News
Bearing the torch of literacy
Source
dh
Date
2005-06-15
Information
Students of Central University, Hyderabad, along with a number of other organisations have succeeded in raising literacy levels in Serlingampally village of Andhra Pradesh.
The Central University of Hyderabad is attempting to make community service a part of the learning process. The university is campaigning to achieve 100 per cent literacy in Serlingampally, a village in Ranga Reddy district, Andhra Pradesh.
University Outreach Activity was initiated by Vice-Chancellor Kota Harinarayana in October 2003. Started as an adult literacy programme, it now imparts skills to the youth with the aim of setting up a community college.
The community college is an alternative route with accent on vocational skills, said Prof I Ramabrahmam, Director, Academic Staff College and also part of the core team that is overseeing the programme.
The university has roped in a variety of organisations, corporates, elected peoples bodies, a public sector unit and even a media organisation in its programme which makes for an interesting mix of people keen on doing their mite for the community they live in.
Two years ago, NSS volunteers identified about 8,000 non-literate adults in and around Serlingampally village and about 160 non-literate class four employees from the university itself. About a 1000 of them have learnt the art of reading and writing in the past three months, thanks to the young volunteers who toiled for about three months.
Women had their inhibitions but they were the ones who showed most interest. G Sugnamma said that although similar classes were organised in the neighbourhood she did not attend them because she felt scared. But looking at people around me learning new things I was motivated, she said. For K Bharati the classes proved god-sent. Now I dont have to depend on any one to read the bus numbers, make grocery lists or read the billboards, she says.
Pushpa is the most enterprising of the lot and with the least inhibitions. With two of her four children in college she has help at home unlike others. I am not ashamed to ask my children to explain and to correct me, she said. Though our classes have completed and we have got our certificates, our thirst for learning has not been quenched, she said speaking on behalf of all the neo-literates.
The university has convinced the leading Telugu media organisation, Eenadu to print a weekly broadsheet newspaper specifically targeted at the adult neo-literates for the three months when the next classes begin. These could also be used in the ongoing classes. This programme has been significant for the young volunteers who taught the first batch of adult learners. They will now be trained in computer skills.
Tata Consultancy Services has agreed to provide them with a fast-track learning software.
The university, with the help of the District Collector and Coordinator of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), started an alternative school last April.
District Primary Education Programme is paying the salary of a lone teacher while also providing the basic teaching aids.
Bharat Heavy Electronics Ltd has agreed to build the infrastructure for the school.
A senior official has been assigned to monitor and coordinate the programme. If all goes well, BHEL is likely to construct a school for the school dropouts in its campus.
The neo-literates, on the other hand, are asserting themselves by serving notice to the local elected representatives demanding a daily water tanker, failing which, they have threatened to boycott municipal elections. To get the community college going, the university conducted a survey of industries around Serlingampally and identified the demand for different kinds of skills and accordingly planned the vocational courses on offer.
Some of them are bookbinding, computer hardware, air conditioner and refrigerator servicing, security management, electrical and electronics, gardening, and so on.
Since most of the 125 community colleges of the country are located in Tamil Nadu, experts were invited for discussions and guidance. Prof M S Hayat, Director of Distance Education Department at the University of Hyderabad and the Convener of the Community College Committee says their programme will guide unemployed youth to realise their dreams. What about the students of the university? Have they no role to play? They do, asserts Prof Ramabrahmam. The Deans of various schools of the university have agreed to give five marks to students who participate in the literacy programmes for 150 hours in a four-semester course.
The methodologies are being worked out. An inspiration for the students is M Krishnaiah, a student of M Phil in the university who was recognised as the Best Volunteer who taught the first batch of neo-literates.
A native of Mylaram village in Mahaboobnagar district, he says, I am from the tribal area, I have lived among the poor non-literates. That is why I am able to understand them. I step into their shoes when I teach them.
They feel I am one among them. Which is why they pursued their studies with matching enthusiasm.
R Akhileshwari with inputs from Mangala Subramanium