Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakramme

Government of India has approved a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakramme (नव भारत साक्षरता कार्यक्रम) for the period FYs 2022-2027 to cover all the aspects of Education For All (erstwhile termed as Adult Education) to align with National Education Policy 2020.

The ULLAS (Understanding Lifelong Learning for All in Society) initiative fosters a learning ecosystem that reaches every individual, bridging the gaps in basic literacy and critical lifeskills. It imparts basic education, digital and financial literacy and critical life skills to citizens aged 15 and above who lost on the opportunity to go to school. It is being implemented through volunteerism.

Definition of literacy

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 while talking of Adult Education, mentions in para 21.4:

'Strong and innovative government initiatives for adult education - in particular, to facilitate community involvement and the smooth and beneficial integration of technology - will be affected as soon as possible to expedite this all-important aim of achieving 100% literacy.' lt underscores the correlation between literacy rates and per capita GDP, highlighting the disadvantages faced by non-literate individuals in various aspects of life, such as financial transactions, job applications, comprehension of media and technology, understanding of rights, and participation in higher productivity sectors.

During September 2024, Literacy was redefined as, “the ability to read, write, and compute with comprehension, i.e., to identify, understand, interpret and create, along with critical life skills such as digital literacy, financial literacy, etc.” This approach ensures that individuals are equipped to fully engage in and contribute to society. Also, the government has set a benchmark for what constitutes 100% or full literacy within the Indian context, “Achieving ninety five per cent literacy (95%) in a State/UT may be considered as equivalent to fully literate.” 

Objectives

The objectives of the scheme is to impart not only Foundational Literacy and Numeracy but also to cover other components which are necessary for a citizen of 21 st century such as Critical Life Skills (including financial literacy, digital literacy, commercial skills, health care and awareness, child care and education, and family welfare); Vocational Skills Development (with a view towards obtaining local employment); Basic Education (including preparatory, middle, and secondary stage equivalency) and Continuing Education (including engaging holistic adult education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, and recreation, as well as other topics of interest or use to local learners, such as more advanced material on critical life skills).

Literacy

• Foundational Literacy and Numeracy : Foundational literacy refers to the skills involved in reading, speaking, writing and interpreting our thoughts. Similarly, numeracy is the ability to perform basic arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Both are equally essential in empowering and improving people’s lives.
• Critical Life skills : Critical Life skills are the essential abilities that allow an individual to deal effectively with the everyday challenges and prosper in life. These include significant skills such as Financial Literacy, Legal Literacy, Digital Literacy, Environmental Literacy, Disaster Management, Commercial Skills, Child Care and Education, Health and Family Welfare matters like effective parenting, first-aid, management of road traffic, filling up important forms and documents like voter registration and many more.
• Vocational Skill Development : Vocational Education is a part of the skill development process for adult neo-literates with a view towards obtaining local employment, reskilling and upskilling. It is designed for learners to acquire the knowledge, skills and competencies specific to a particular occupation or trade or class of occupations to progress in life.
• Basic Education : Basic Education, with reference to ULLAS (Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram) refers to the informal education of learners of 15 years and above in the country. This alludes to preparatory stage (Classes III to V), middle stage (Classes VI to VIII) and secondary stage (Classes IX to XII) equivalency being implemented in a collaborative manner between NCERT/SCERTs and NIOS/SIOS.
• Continuing Education : Continuing Education, also known as Lifelong Learning, includes engaging holistic adult education courses in arts, sciences, technology, culture, sports, recreation, as well as any other subject area, hobby, craft or skill. It comprises post secondary learning activities providing the learners the flexibility to acquire knowledge of their areas of interest at any point of time in their lives. 

Scheme Implementation

The scheme will be implemented through volunteerism through online mode. Trainings, orientations, workshops of volunteers will be organized through face-to-face mode. All material and resources shall be provided digitally for easy access to registered volunteers through easily accessible digital modes, viz, TV, radio, cell phone-based free/open-source Apps/portals, etc.

The scheme will cover non-literates of the age group of 15 years and above in all state/UTs in the country.

The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FYs 2022-27 is 5 (five) crore learners @ 1.00 crore learners per year by using “Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)” in collaboration with NIC, NCERT and NIOS in which a learner may register him/herself with essential information like name, date of birth, gender, Aadhaar number (optional), mobile number etc. for online teaching learning and assessment.

The financial outlay of “Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakramme” is Rs.1037.90 crore which includes Central share of Rs.700 crore and State share of Rs.337.90 crore respectively.

Salient Features of the scheme

• School will be Unit for implementation of the scheme.
• Schools to be used for conducting survey of beneficiaries and volunteers.
• Different strategies are to be adopted for different age cohorts. Flexibility for States/UTs will be provided to undertake innovative activities.
• Foundational Literacy and Numeracy will be imparted through Critical Life Skills to all non-literates in the age group of 15 years and above.
• Use of Technologies to impart Adult Education for wider coverage of the scheme.
• Performance Grading Index (PGI) for state/UT and district level will show the performance of States and UTs to implement the scheme and achievements on a yearly basis by weighing both the physical and financial progress through UDISE portal.
• CSR/Philanthropic support may be received by hosting ICT support, providing volunteer support, opening facilitation centres for learners and for providing IT access to economically weaker learners in the form of cell phones, etc.
• The age cohort of 15-35 will be saturated first followed by ages 35 and above. Priority will be given in terms of categories to the girls and women, SC/ST/OBC/Minorities, Persons with Special Needs (Divyangjans), Marginalized/ Nomadic/ Construction workers/ laborers/etc. who can substantially and immediately benefit from adult education. In terms of location/area, the focus shall be on all aspirational districts of NITI Aayog, districts with literacy rates less than the National/State average, districts with female literacy rates less than 60% as per the 2011 Census, Districts/ Blocks with large SC/ST/ Minority population, Educationally Backward Blocks, Left Wing Extremism Affected districts.
• Convergence with Ministries/Departments for effective implementation of the scheme.
• ULLAS as Janandolan with an objective of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav::
  • Participation of about 3 crore students/children of around 7 lakh schools registered under UDISE along with about 50 lakh teachers of Government, Aided and Private schools
  • An estimated 20 lakh students from Teacher Education and Higher Education Institutions will be actively involved.
  • Support will be garnered from PRIs, Anganwadi workers, ASHA workers and an estimated 50 lakh NYSK, NSS and NCC volunteers.
  • There will be involvement of community, participation of philanthropic/CSR organizations through volunteerism and through Vidyanjali portal.
  • State/UTs will promote individual/ family/ village/ district success stories through various platforms.
  • It will utilize all types of media–Electronic, Print, Folk & Inter-personal platforms including social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TV channels, radio, etc.
• Assessment of Literacy will be conducted in local schools using scientific format to capture the real-life learning and skills for functional literacy. Assessment on demand will also be made through OTLAS and e-certificate jointly e-signed by NIOS and NLMA will be issued to the learner.
• Annual Achievement Survey of Learning Outcomes by samples of 500-1000 randomly selected learners from each state/UT and Outcome-Output Monitoring Framework (OOMF).

Learning resources

• Regional language learning materials - Foundational Literacy and Numeracy
• Regional language learning materials - Critical Life Skills
• Regional language learning materials - Vocational Skill Development
• Regional language learning materials - Basic Education
• Regional language learning materials - Continuing Education

Source : ULLAS portal