SWAMI VIVEKANAND SUBHARTI UNIVERSITY,

MEERUT, U.P.

SUBJECT: LEGAL ENGLISH

PROJECT ON; ADULT EDUCATION IN INDIA

SUBMITTED TO:

Associate Professor: - Dr. Rafat Khanam

SUBMITTED BY:

Dhaarya Vats

B.A. LL.B 1st SEMESTER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to give special thanks to Assoiate Professor. Dr. Rafat khanam who
gave me the golden opportunity to do this project on this case which helped me in
doing a lot of research and I came to know about so many new things I am really
thankful to her. Secondly I would like to thanks my parents and friend who helped
me a lot in finalizing this project within the limited time fit.

………………………

Dhaarya Vats
B.A. LL.B.

1st SEMESTER

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

 INTRODUCTION

 NATIONAL ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAMME (NAEP)

 RURAL FUNCTIONAL LITERACY PROGRAMME (RFLP):

 NATIONAL LITERACY MISSION (NLM):

 EVALUATION OF MEASURES UNDERTAKEN:

 CONCLUSION

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 INTRODUCTION

In the history of adult education, the concept of adult education has constantly
changed and developed under various nomenclatures. The key concept used up to
1947 was ‘basic education’ which was based on traditional approach and focused
on the programme of night schools.

Between 1949 and 1966, the concept used was ‘civic literacy’ which was based on
life-oriented approach and focused on social education. Between 1967 and 1977,
‘functional literacy’ concept based on work-oriented approach came to be
emphasized in adult education which focused on functional literacy programme,
farmer’s education and Shramik Vidyapiths. From 1978 onwards, ‘developmental
literacy’ concept based on social change approach came to be used more which
focused on total literacy campaigns.

The basic literacy concept evolved with the expansion of night schools which
received grants-in-aid from 1929. The course in this scheme was spread over a
period of two years and included simple lessons in 3 R’s, stories of historical
importance, and elementary lessons in health, hygiene and first-aid. The instruction
was imparted for 2-3 hours in the evening. During 1938-39, a series of Provincial
Mass Literacy Campaigns were organized by different provincial governments. It
was estimated that during 1938-42, about 1.38 crore persons became literate.

The concept of civic literacy was conceived in 1949 and modified in 1952 when it
was integrated with Community Development Programme. It was implemented all
over India during the first two Five Year Plans. It was estimated that nearly 35 lakh
illiterates became literate during the First Five Year Plan and about 40 lakh during
the Second Plan.
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The concept of functional literacy emerged during the 1960s. Defined as “literacy
integrated with the occupation of the learner and directly related to development”,
functional literacy was translated into action in 1968. Initially it was introduced in
three districts but it expanded during next ten years and covered 144 districts out of
397 by 1977. During the Fourth Plan, nearly 30 lakh farmers joined the functional
literacy classes.

By early 1970s, the concept of development literacy came to be evolved. Literacy

was described not just the process of learning the skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic but a contribution to the liberation of man and to his full development.
In 1978, the government formulated the National Adult Education Programme
(NAEP). The 1980s also witnessed the expansion of University Adult Education in
India when the University Grants Commission (UGC) provided grants to 93
universities (Shah, Indian Adult Education: A Historical Perspective, Directorate
of Adult Education, New Delhi, 1993)

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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.

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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.

The process of the Mass Programme of Functional Literacy involves a number of

stages. These stages are: selecting master trainers who are to train the student
volunteers; selecting, motivating and mobilizing the student volunteers who are
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genuinely and sincerely committed to literacy work; identifying illiterate persons
in the age group of 15-35 who may be staying in the neighbourhood of an
educational institution; forging a link between the student volunteers and the
illiterate persons and assigning an area of operation for each volunteer; monitoring
of the programme of the student volunteers by senior teachers/headmasters of
schools; coordination with various development departments/agencies by way of
visits of functionaries to the place where the volunteer is imparting literacy, telling
the learners about the advantages of being literate, making available charts, posters
and other materials to the learners and identifying genuine difficulties of the
learners; and providing post-literacy activities for the neo-literates through libraries
and reading rooms. Coverage and support by the media and evaluation of the
overall impact of the programme through University Departments of Adult and
Continuing Education is of crucial importance.

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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.

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Evaluation of Measures Undertaken:
The attempts made by the government in the fifties, sixties and seventies for
eradicating illiteracy could not succeed possibly because the nation then was
preoccupied with problems of food, employment and self-reliance. Besides, an
account of the increase in population also, the number of illiterates in the country
progressively increased from 29.4 crore in 1951 to 32.5 crore in 1961, 37.6 crore in
1971, 42.4 crore in 1981, and 48.1 crore in 1991.

The literacy programme in the last two decades has not achieved much. If we
accept the official figures, the literacy campaign in the country so far has made
2.20 crore people literate. And the country took 50 years to achieve this landmark
figures. In the process, Rs. 2,483.07 crore were spent on the adult education alone,
and another Rs. 9,201 crore on the elementary education.

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 CONCLUSION

Education plays an indispensable and indisputable role in the development of a

nation. There is a direct and definite positive correlation between education and
development. A country with a vast chunk of the population remains as illiterates
cannot flourish in any of its domain of development. Realizing the paramount
significance of education, the Government of India made sincere and honest
attempts to promote education in rural as well as in urban areas. The government
did realize that a real learning society cannot be created through formal education
system alone because a vast majority of the rural population especially the women
and other weaker section of the community were illiterate. Hence the Government
initiated various measures to promote literacy for those who could not undergo
education through formal system and for those who dropped out of formal system
due to socio-economic and cultural compulsions. Various measures initiated by the
government of India in the form of programmes, schemes, projects and mission
have made a discernible impact on the literacy status of the country. An important
component in the current initiative is promotion of continuing education
programmes. The purpose of the programme is to sustain the various measures
initiated over a period of time and to channelise the newly gained potentials of the
adults towards sustainable socio- economic development. The present study is an
attempt to examine the performance of the continuing education programmes in
Kerala.

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 Bibliography

Links Referred:-Google.IN

wikipedia .COM

adult education essay

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