THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Over 3,000 people from various tribal communities have enrolled themselves for the second phase of the Literacy Mission’s ‘Samagra’ project which aims to wipe off illiteracy from the 100 most backward tribal colonies in the state. In the first phase of the project, more than 2,000 people from the Scheduled Tribes category were enrolled.
The project is being implemented by the Literacy Mission in association with the Scheduled Tribes Development Department. The literacy project was launched in March last year in 100 tribal colonies identified by the Scheduled Tribes Department as being most backward in terms of literacy. Of the 2,296 people who wrote the exam in the first phase, 1,196 people cleared it. The second phase includes those who could not clear phase one as well as fresh enrolments.
What’s on offer
Besides basic literacy, the project also offers Class IV equivalency and Class VII equivalency courses as well. While 1,037 tribal people registered for basic literacy course in phase two, the enrolments for Classes IV and VII courses were 1,598 and 405 respectively. The speciality of the Samagra course is that it is being fully implemented by tribal people themselves.
The literacy activities in each colony are being managed by an instructor from the tribal community, who had passed matriculation According to Literacy Mission director PS Sreekala, such a norm has been followed so that in all government projects for tribal people in future, the key role of a person from that community is ensured.
Active monitoring
In order to ensure that the project is effectively implemented, each phase is monitored by the Adivasi Saksharata Samithi (tribal literacy committee) functioning in the panchayat as well as the district levels.
The state-level monitoring of the project is being done by a core group that includes the director of the mission and the director of Scheduled Tribes Development Department.