Himachal set to join elite literacy league on Sept 8

After Goa, Tripura and Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh has now achieved the distinction of becoming fully literate. Education Minister Rohit Thakur, while participating in an award function on Teacher’s Day today, said the formal announcement in this regard would be made on International Literacy Day on September 8.

“Currently, our literacy rate is 98 per cent. As per the central guidelines, the benchmark for any state to proclaim itself as fully literate is 95 per cent literacy rate. We have already crossed the benchmark,” said an official from the Education Department.

The state will be declared fully literate as per the guidelines of ULLAS, a centrally sponsored scheme for literacy. The scheme targets individuals aged 15 years and above who could not go to school. The scheme has five components — foundational literacy and numeracy, critical life skills, basic education, vocational skills and continuing education.

The official said the department had conducted extensive surveys to find out illiterate individuals in the state, and nearly one lakh individuals were found illiterate. “We’ve managed to make over 50,000 of them literate. We deputed master trainers and voluntary teachers to teach them. So, we now have few illiterate persons in the state,” the official said.

The state has already sent the report to the Centre. “The report has been acknowledged, and now we can go ahead and proclaim the state as fully literate,” the official said.