As many as 40,440 people, including a 96-year-old woman, took part in the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority’s ‘Aksharalaksham’ literacy examination held in the State on Sunday. Karthyayani Amma of Cheppad village of Haripad Vidan Sabha Constituency, in Alappuzha district is the oldest of the examinees. Karthiyani Amma took the examination at the Cheppad government LP school. Driven by the urge to read and write, the nonagenarian had enrolled herself in the state literacy mission’s Aksharalaksham programme six months ago.
Palakkad district represent with the highest number of participants. 11,683 examinees from the district appeared for the first phase of the exam.’Aksharalaksham’ is a project of the mission to achieve cent per cent literacy with focus mainly on 16-75 age group. Among the examinees, eighty prisoners, who are inmates in various jails in the state, also took part in the examination. Of the participants, 36,112 were in the age group between 35 to 60 while 3604 people were below 35 and the remaining 724 people crossed 60 years of age.
The examinees were tested on skills including reading, writing and mathematics in the 100-mark paper. To pass the exam, one should secure at least nine marks out of 30 in reading, 12 out of 40 in writing and nine out of 30 in Mathematics.
According to UNESCO criteria, 90 per cent of the population need to be literate to declare as fully literate, Kerala state had already secured the status of fully literate state.
People above 15 years can participate in this project and can secure 4th standard equivalent status after passing the exam.
The second phase of Aksharalaksham will be implemented in one local self-government institution in each district.