Adult literacy

 Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values.^[1] It can mean any form of learning adults engage in beyond traditional schooling, encompassing basic literacy to personal fulfillment as a lifelong learner.^[2]

In particular, adult education reflects a specific philosophy about learning and teaching based on the assumption that adults can and want to learn, that they are able and willing to take responsibility for the learning, and that the learning itself should respond to their needs.^[3]

Driven by what one needs or wants to learn, the available opportunities, and the manner in which one learns, adult learning is affected by demographics, globalization and technology.^[4] The learning happens in many ways and in many contexts just as all adults' lives differ.^[5] Adult learning can be in any of the three contexts, i.e.:

• Formal – Structured learning that typically takes place in an education or training institution, usually with a set curriculum and carries credentials;
• Non-formal – Learning that is organized by educational institutions but non credential. Non-formal learning opportunities may be provided in the workplace and through the activities of civil society organizations and groups;
• Informal education – Learning that goes on all the time, resulting from daily life activities related to work, family, community or leisure (e.g. community baking class)

Importance of Adult Education in India

The main objective of adult education is to make every person of India literate and provide practical knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic. Such knowledge must be mandatory for a person living in any republican world.

The purpose of adult education is to increase the literacy rate in India and to put those illiterate people further on the path of knowledge. Their rights and duties are expressed as citizens. They are expected to broadcast the knowledge gained in this way between their associates who have less knowledge than them.

After getting an education, at least the person is expected to write and read the letter, read newspapers, and be aware of the current events of the world. Adult education started in England. Initially, these schools only took classes on Sunday ie the day of the holiday. Later, he started studying every day.

Adult education in India was inaugurated by the NGOs in Mumbai. This work was done at night schools. As the number of learners increased, more and more schools were opened and changes were made at the time of adult’s convenience.

Normally, the whole work of adult education is done without any fees. It is done with the spirit of social service. Today everyone has accepted its importance. State Governments give financial assistance and instructions to Adult Schools. The Central Government has also provided adequate funds to the state government for large-scale adult education programs.

Adult Education Programmes in India

1) National Adult Education Programme (NAEP):

The NAE programme was launched on October 2, 1978 with the aim of providing education and promoting literacy among all illiterate persons, particularly in the age group of 15-35 years. The programme is a joint and collaborative effort of the central government, state governments, union territory administrations, voluntary agencies, universities, colleges and youth centres.

The education under the NAE programme is a pack­age which envisages:

(i) Imparting literacy skills to the target illiterate population,

(ii) Their functional development, and

(iii) Creation of aware­ness among them regarding laws and policies of the government for the efficient implementation of the strategy of redistributive justice.

Special emphasis is being placed on the education of women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections of society, who com­prise the bulk of illiterate population in India.

2) Rural Functional Literacy Programme (RFLP):

The RFL programme is a sub-programme of the Adult Education Pro­gramme which is fully funded by the central government and implemented by the states and union territories.

The broad objectives of this programme are:

(i) To develop abilities in the learners to read and write, and

(ii) To create awareness among the learners about their rights and duties and the benefits they can draw from various schemes of so­cio-economic development being implemented by the government.

The RFLP was launched in May 1986 by involving the NSS and other student volunteers in colleges and universities on the principle of “Each One Teach One”. Starting on a modest scale of 2 lakh volunteers, it went up to 4.50 lakh in 1990 covering over 4.20 lakh learners. The programme has been designed keeping in view the needs and languages of the learners. The government has selected 40 districts to improve the quality of adult education. It is only after evaluation of the impact that the programme will be taken up in a big way to spread literacy in the minimum possible time.

3) National Literacy Mission (NLM):

In accordance with the directives of the National Policy on Education and the implementation strategies envisaged in the Programme of Ac­tion, the government formulated a comprehensive programme and constituted National Literacy Mission (NLM) with a view to achieving literacy goals through setting into motion Total Literacy Campaigns (TLCs) all over the country in a phased manner. The NLM was launched in May 1988 to achieve the goal of imparting ‘functional literacy’ to 80 million illiterate persons in the 15-35 age groups by 1995.

The Mission, thus, aimed at achieving 80 per cent literacy in 1995 in comparison to 36 per cent in 1981. The NLM aimed at involving the youth and voluntary agencies in the programme. In 1990, there were 513 projects in opera­tion in various states and union territories. Likewise, presently, there are 500 voluntary agencies working in the field.

In addition, Shramik Vidyapeeths and 16 state resource centres are functioning in different states to cater to the workers’ education and to provide technical re­source support to the programme. The TLC phase is to be followed up and strengthened by post-literacy (PL) and continuing education (CE) phases. The NLM while laying emphasis on acquisition of literacy and numeracy skills seeks to create awareness among illiterate people, lead­ing to their empowerment.