Literacy Focus – December 2018
PRID and RILM Chairman Shekhar Mehta headed a panel discussion organised by the National Literacy Mission Authority (NLMA) of the HRD Ministry’s Department of School Education and Literacy, to commemorate the International Literacy Day at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, Delhi. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar was the chief guest and it was attended by Upendra Kushwaha, the HRD Minister for State, Secretary (Department of School Education and Literacy) Rina Ray; Joint Secretary, (AE) and Director General – NLMA Sachin Sinha and Al Amin Yusuf, Advisor for Communication for South Asia, UNESCO Office, Delhi.
Mehta, talking about the high illiteracy rate, suggested that Rotary can support the government in addressing this issue and highlighted Rotary’s success in eradicating Polio. Rotary clubs have already initiated the pilot project for improving literacy, he said and suggested that for successful implementation of the literacy scheme, it should be launched by the Prime Minister with wide publicity and public attention. Budget is also one of the deciding factors for the success of the literacy scheme. Sufficient funds should be allocated for free distribution of primers to student-volunteers to counter adult illiteracy, he said. PDG Ranjan Dhingra and Rtn Ajay Kumar Singh also spoke on strategies adopted by Rotary to improve Adult literacy.
Nation Builder Awards
Many Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs have enthusiastically identified and recognised efficient government teachers with Nation Builder Awards (NBA).
As of Oct 11, of the 31,708 teachers evaluated nationwide, 6,709 teachers have been awarded with the Award. The numbers are still ticking as the frenzy has caught on with more clubs. The award recognises the contribution of teachers in building this nation and the evaluation process provides RILM valuable information for its Teacher training vertical. This year the entire process of NBA was done online through the RILM website.
The NBA model was lauded by the Karnataka government; the education department has evinced interest to associate itself in the programme for assessment of government school teachers in the State.
Literacy across the Districts
RC Kalimpong, D 3240, and RC Muzzafarpur, D 3250, presented Rotary Nation Builder Award for 25 government school teachers. RC Greenland Silchar, D 3240, gave NBA certificates for 32 teachers and RC Bokaro Midtown, D 3250, honoured 17 teachers with the award. Rotary Clubs of Bombay North West Malad and Jamshedpur West also recognised teachers in their districts.
The Inner Wheel Clubs of Deonar, Tiruchi Malaikottai, Gaya, Balrampur and Bombay Kandivli also felicitated teachers with NBA certificates.
Kolhapur club trains 10,000 teachers
RC Kolhapur Sunrise, D 3170, signed an MoU with the Zilla Parishad of Kolhapur, to train 10,000 government school teachers, in the presence of PDG Anand Kulkarni; CEO of Zilla Parishad Kolhapur Kunal Khemnar; DLCC Prasanna Deshingkar and Member of Parliament Dhananjay Mahadik.
The training was conducted with the help of the District Institute of Educational Continuous Professional Development (DIECPD) to enhance the skills of teachers in spoken English and using technology in teaching. So far RILM has trained 32,000 teachers and felicitated 14,000 teachers under this programme.
