Literacy Overview
Non-Formal Education Centre
Campaign will be coordinated by the NFEC, Ministry of Education and Sports.
Above web site includes Policies (English) and the "Naya Goreto" Primer (Nepali with illustrations) for previous activities from 2006.
Several programs are described, targeted at various categories such as Adults, Women, Post-Literacy, School Outreach, Alternative Schooling, School Drop out and Income generation.
Local copies of both are provided in this folder because Google currently lists their web site as affected by attack software. (See navigation panel at left). There are many other publications in Nepali. Any translation or notes with information on their contents would be greatly appreciated.
The adult literacy program is conducted for illiterate adult men and women of 14 to 45 years age group who due to several reasons were not able to attend the formal education. At least 20 adults attend the classes that are run at accessible place and convenient time. This program is conducted for six months with minimum of two hours a day for six days a week. Its main focus is to make the people literate and aware of the issues of their daily life. Naya Goreto I and II are the textbooks of this level of literacy program. As discussed with NFE experts, the curriculum and textbooks are based on the theory of adult learning.
This program has been launched in the country from the very beginning of the establishment of democracy in 2007 BS to make the people able to read and write in Nepali language to make the people aware and conscious of the values and norms of democracy and development. Along with the literacy, different awareness messages are also integrated in the messages of the literacy to encourage the people for their socio-economic developments and aware of the various issues of their life to change their behaviors in a positive way.
Media Reports
We have not been able to obtain a copy of the Directive mentioned in reports below. Any assistance with either original Nepali version or translation would be greatly appreciated. Also any other more current information as the NFEC web site does not appear to be up to date in english.
Literacy programme kicks off from Bhaktapur
Inaugurating the campaign in Bhaktapur district today, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the literacy campaign will assist and add energy in building New Nepal.
The Prime Minister said, 'The main reason behind Nepal to be left in lurch is illiteracy, the doors for the success will open after the people will be literate".
He also said that the government's first priority is education for all, so, huge budget has been allocated for the same this year.
The government had declared this campaign through the fiscal years budget with the slogan 'Know Alphabets and be Civilized'.
The government aims to make a total of 2.6 million people literate at a cost of Rs. 1.04 billion this fiscal year.
It is estimated that there are about 7.8 million illiterate people across the country.
The campaign will provide part-time employment to 99,300 students who have appeared for the SLC examination by involving them as volunteers.
In addition, 8,026 students who have appeared for plus-two or intermediate level examination will work as supervisors. The curriculum has been produced in five languages, namely, Maithali, Abadhi, Bhojpuri, Tamang, Doteli and Nepali.
The volunteers will first conduct door-to-door survey to find-out how many people are illiterate in the village.
Once the data is collected, they will teach the illiterate how to read, write and solve general mathematical problems.
The supervisor will file monthly survey reports to the District Administration Office (DAO) and District Education Office (DEO) and provide technical support to volunteers.
MoE is responsible for providing necessary training and materials that volunteers and supervisors need, and local bodies will recruit volunteers and supervisors, as per the directive prepared for the campaign.
Meanwhile, the government has also started campaigning for 'New Nepal Healthy Nepal' from today by initiating 'Mother's security' programme at government health post nationwide.
With this programme, the motherhood will have free maternity aid and free transportation expenses during the maternity period.
http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?page=kolnews.php&nid=175320
Literacy campaign from Wednesday
The government is undertaking a nationwide literacy campaign beginning Wednesday (January 14) to make 1.2 million illiterate people literate.
The campaign will be carried out in 59 districts of the country.
The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda,' Monday, decided to seek cooperation from all parties, organisations, NGOs and media to make the campaign successful.
Of the 75 districts in total, the campaign has been halted in eight districts due to dispute over transportation of textbooks.
On the other hand, the campaign in mountainous districts will be started after three months.
Literacy campaign to run classes in mother tongue, nepali
Purushottam Khatri Sanothimi
The National Literacy Campaign (NLC)-2065 which is just four days away is expected to benefit the illiterate Nepalese in two ways as classes will be run both in mother tongue and Nepali language.
People aged between 15-60 years will sit for the literacy classes, which is going to start from January 14 and last till April 13 as the first phase campaign throughout the country.
The government announced through this year’s budget speech the plan of launching a nation-wide literacy campaign and to eliminate illiteracy from across the country within two years.
As per government announcement, it had handed over the responsibility to run the programme to Non-formal Education Centre (NEC) in two phases. The second phase campaign will start from April 14 and go till July 13.
"People, especially who had been deprived from education due to various reasons, will be have an opportunity to learn in both mother tongue as well as in national language," Sushil Pandey, director of Non-formal Education Centre (NEC) told The Rising Nepal.
"We decided to start mother tongue based literacy classes after NEC received more demands for it," Pandey said. As per the demands, NEC has managed to take mother tongue literacy classes in six different languages-- Abadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Tharu, Tamang and Doteli languages. These mother tongue based classes will start in the districts Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Nawalparasi, Dang, Bardiya, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Achham, Parsa, Bara, Dailekh, Sarlahi and Siraha.
Of the six different mother tongues, the demand of Maithili and Bhojpuri is highest compared to the rest of the languages. A total of 41,500 literacy classes will be run in VDCs and municipalities in the first phase and in the second phase there will be about 47,870 literacy classes across the country.
To educate this chunk of illiterate people, the government plans to employ about 89,370 youth volunteers," Pandey said. "There will be at least one volunteer who has passed SLC or Intermediate Level in each class," Pandey said. There will be one volunteer and one inspector in each VDC and municipality to monitor and run the class effectively.
Asked about the arrangement of mother tongue based textbooks, Pandey said the responsibility of printing the textbooks and supplying them to the learners has already been fulfilled through the district level. This year despite central level responsibility to print the textbook, the government has managed to print the books even from open market or private publication houses, Pandey said.
With the announcement of the campaign, the government has aimed at making literate about 2.6 million people within six months from the first and second phase programmes.
According to the government census of 2058 B.S., 7.8 million Nepalese are illiterate.
Till the end of the first phase campaign, NEC has hoped to make literate about 1,296,000 people. Similarly, in its second phase campaign it has aimed to educate 1,395,000 people.
Dr. Lekth Nath Poudel, joint spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, said, "Present initiation taken by the government will not be enough to educate 7.8 million illiterate people within two years time. It will be just a beginning in eradicating illiteracy". According to the Ministry, 5.6 million people aged between 150-60 are illiterate.
Talking about the financial side of the campaign, Dr. Poudel said that the government had allotted a total of Rs. 1.04 billion to implement the campaign. Likewise, the government has also revised the allowance amount from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 for the volunteers and Rs. 1,500 to 2,500 to the inspectors appointed for literacy class of the country.
Gorkhapatra 2009-01-10
Literacy campaign to start from january 14
TRN Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 19
The most ambitious National Literacy Campaign announced by the government two months ago aiming to eradicate illiteracy from across the country within two years will formally begin from 14th of January.
With the announcement of formal campaigning of the programme, the government has aimed to make a total of about 2.6 million illiterate people literate from across the country within six months.
"The government in two different phases of programme has aimed to literate 2.6 million people," Dr. Lekth Nath Poudel, joint spokesperson and joint secretary of the Education Ministry told The Rising Nepal Wednesday.
The first phase of the programme will begin from 14th of January and will continue for three months. And another three months of second phase of the campaign will start from 14 of March. Within six months of time, the government will educate a total of 1,296,000 illiterate people. And in the second phase campaign it has aimed to educate 1,395,000 people, Dr. Poudel said.
The government two months ago through the budget had announced to run a national literacy campaign with the slogan of ‘’Know alphabets, Be Civilised".
Although this is a beginning of the campaign to eradicate the illiteracy from the country, the present initiation will not be enough to educate a chunk of 7.8 million people. According to the government census, it has been saying that 7.8 million people are still deprived from educational opportunities.
Dr. Poudel said that the government has also aimed to educate especially 15-45 age group of illiterate people. As per the government statistics, there are a total of 5.6 million illiterate people in this age group. "Thus the present initiative taken by the government will be hard pressed to meet its target as it has set two years of deadline to eradicate illiteracy from the country," Dr. Poudel said.
Talking on the financial aspects of the campaign, he said that the government has allotted a total of Rs. 1.4 billion to implement the campaign for a maximum period of six months.
The government has also fixed that this campaign will be started with the cooperation and networking of local units and each village development committees of the concerned district. The allotted budget will be at first given to the local units and the local units will distribute the amount to each VDCs as per the needs and of the campaign, clarified Dr. Poudel. "The amount will be distributed on the basis of the number of illiterate population in the concerned districts," added Poudel.
The government will start 41,500 centres or classes to teach the people in its first phase and in the second phase it will start about 47,870 centres to educate the illiterate people. "There will be at least one teacher in each centre who has passed SLC or Intermediate Level to teach them," he said. "When this could happen it is sure that minimum 89,370 youth volunteers will explore employment opportunities within this year," claimed Poudel.
The Rising Nepal 2008-11-19
Govt to launch literacy campaign from January
As committed in the policies and programmes, the Ministry of Education (MoE) is preparing for the first phase of National Literacy Campaign (NLC) from January 14 next year, which aims to make the population literate within two years.
The ministry said it has finalised 'National Literacy Campaign Program Implementation Directives-2008' for implementation of the programmmes at various levels.
In a press meet Friday, Ram Swarup Sinha, acting secretary at the ministry, said they would collect fresh data on illiteracy rate in the country before the execution of the programme.
Textbooks for the campaign will be in local languages like Abadhi, Maithali, Bhojpur, Tamang, Tharu and Dotel apart from Nepali.
The teaching materials will be managed by the local literacy class and funds will be provided to the VDCs and municipalities through district development committees.
Two phases of campaign will be of three months each. The classes will be run by volunteers, as per the government commitment.
National Literacy Campaign to Start From Jan
THT Online
Kathmandu, November 22
The Ministry of Education (MoE) is preparing the first stage of the National Literacy Campaign (NLC) from January 14 next year. The campaign is being launched to educate illiterate people throughout the country within two years.
The MoE has already prepared 'National Literacy Campaign Program Implementation Directives-2008' to execute the programmme at various levels.
It is estimated that some 7.8 million of the 11.7 million people in the 15-60 age group are illiterate.
Speaking at a press conference organised here on Friday, Ram Swarup Sinha, acting secretary of MoE, said that the ministry would collect fresh data of the illiterate people throughout the country before the execution of the programme.
"The government has realised that the social and economic development of the county is impossible without educating illiterate people. That is why we have launched this campaign," Sinha said.
Sushil Pandey, director of Non Formal Education Centre (NFEC), said, "Different committees have been formed at central and local level to execute the programmes effectively."
The textbooks required for the programme will be published in local languages like Abadhi, Maithali, Bhojpur, Tamang, Tharu and Dotel apart from Nepali. Under the campaign, the teaching materials will be managed by the local literacy class. Likewise, funds will be provided to the VDCs and municipalities from the centre through district development committees.
The NLC would be executed under two phases, each having the duration of three months. The volunteers for the first phase should be SLC passed while those passing intermediate/+2 level will be required for the second phase.
The ministry is targeting to literate around 1.2 million people by running 41,430 literacy classes in the first phase and 1.3 million people by running 47,870 classes in the second phase.
Depending on the number of illiterate people, each ward in the VDC will have one one class while a ward in the municipalities will run three classes.
The Himalayan Times 2008-11-22
Research
It should be obvious that actually organizing literacy classes is the way to end illiteracy and new Nepal is on the right track by mobilizing tens of thousands of volunteers directly from the local communities.
Nevertheless there is an enormous amount of scepticism about whether it can be done that way (mainly based on scepticism that anything can be done at all since so many "efforts" have failed).
Some research was done in India's Uttar Pradesh (neighbouring and similar to Nepal's Terai Madhesh), directly comparing the usual "treatments" of "informing" and "empowering" with actual "doing". It thoroughly confirms the startlingly obvious - actually organizing literacy classes works, where nothing else does. Check it out:
http://econ-www.mit.edu/files/3117
The main author, Esther Duflo is now considered a celebrated French intellectual.
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