Total Literacy Campaigns: Problems and Issues

Evaluation has a major role to play in strengthening the literacy campaigns by identifying the merits and demerits of the programme. As many as 428 districts throughout the country are implementing total literacy campaigns. Many districts have completed literacy, post-literacy and are in the continuing education phase. With a view to cover the dropouts, absentees and newly attained age groups remaining illiterate, several districts have taken up mopping up and the programme has been implemented in a phased manner. The districts are proposing new and innovative strategies to maximise the performance in the literacy efforts. The present study aims to evaluate i. Different strategies adopted in environment building, motivation of learners; ii. Teaching-learning materials; iii. Training of volunteers; iv. Impact of the campaigns; v. Attitude of learners; vi. Achievement of learners in literacy skills; and vii. Problems of learners in attending the centres. The study offers workable solutions to improve the programme mainly from three important angles i.e., (a) Environment building motivation of learners, (b) Teaching-learning materials; (c) Training of volunteers; and (d) Impact of the campaign. The study would be of immense use in improving the status of literacy campaigns under National Literacy Mission.