Mysuru: The district administration and adult education department have begun measures to improve adult literacy in the green-rich, tribal-dominated Chamarajanagar district, which stands at 60%, below Karnataka’s 70% average.The literacy rate of males is 82% and 68% for females in the state. The national literacy average rate is 75%.Starting with Ajjipura and Nagavalli gram panchayats, 2,559 non-literate adults have been identified for functional literacy programmes. Following the directions of zilla panchayat chief executive officer Mona Ratha to improve the literacy rate in the district, the department has taken up the task of improving the adult literacy rate gram panchayat-wise in phased stages under the national and state literacy mission initiatives to eradicate illiteracy and promote lifelong learning for them.Last year, the department also trained 2,503 non-literates in the district by conducting literacy campaigns with the help of local educated volunteers. These neo-literates missed earlier formal education opportunities due to economic and social disadvantages. Most of the non-literates chosen by the departments were women and belonged to socially marginalised sections.Out of them, 2,301 people successfully cleared the exams. Neo-literate certificates were distributed by the department to them. These neo-literates acquired basic literacy skills like reading, writing, and simple arithmetic skills.Two hours of reading, writing, and arithmetic classes were conducted for them during evening and night hours five days a week by volunteers, as most of the non-literates were labourers from socially and economically deprived backgrounds. People of all ages can attend adult education classes in the selected gram panchayat villages.“As education is key for the overall development of the district, the department must step up its measures to educate non-literates by intensifying specific programmes. As there are complaints of misuse of funds by the department in training the targeted classes, it must stop misusing and conduct the training programme for non-literates seriously to improve the literacy rate in the district,” said Maheshprabhu, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha district general secretary of Chamarajanagar.Chamarajanagar district adult education officer Lingarajua said that the department has selected two gram panchayat villages as non-literates after identifying and conducting the classes by the volunteers selected by its department to improve the adult literacy rate in the district under various state and Union govt schemes for the year 2025-26.
