Importance of Literacy

A recently released UNESCO report on ‘Education has highlighted India’s dismal performance in achieving the stated objective by 2015 A.D. However, in all fairness, India is taking small but definitive steps towards securing a hundred percent literacy rate. The need for basic education for all children in the age group of six to fourteen was clearly enunciated in the Constitution of India. The Supreme Court of India has also observed that education was not merely a pious wish but also an enforceable right. Further, the rate of growth in literacy among females has been pathetically low. According to the World Watch Institute, out of the total number of illiterate women in the world today, about half reside in India. The National Literacy Mission was launched with the objective of emphasizing the importance of literacy. It did set off a mass movement on an unprecedented scale and magnitude, heightening people’s awareness but could not achieve the required success due to various hurdles. The literacy campaign has to be carefully planned and meticulously executed, relying on interpersonal contact and community involvement. Unfortunately, the lofty goals set by the “education for all” campaign seem almost impossible to be achieved in the present chaotic situation in the primary education field.