Kerala tops in literacy rate followed by Lakshadweep, Mizoram: MoE

New Delhi: Kerala has the highest literacy rate (94 pc) followed by Lakshadweep (91.85) and Mizoram (91.33 pc), according to Ministry of Education. The literacy rate in rural India is 67.77 per cent as compared to 84.11 per cent in urban India, it said.

The information was shared by Union Minister of State for Education, Annapurna Devi, in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

"Samagra Shiksha scheme envisages the school as a continuum from pre-school, primary, upper primary, secondary to senior secondary levels. The states and UTs are assisted by the central government to implement the Samagra Shiksha as a programme for providing universal access and retention, bridging the gender and social category gaps in education and enhancement of learning level of children at all levels of school education," Devi said.

According to the data shared by the Ministry of Education, Bihar (61.8 pc) has the lowest literacy, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (65.3 pc) and Rajasthan (66.1 pc).

The ministry said to improve the literacy rate among adults in the country, a centrally sponsored scheme of Adult Education Saakshar Bharat.

It said the scheme was implemented in the rural areas of 404 districts in 26 states and one Union Territory, that had adult female literacy rate of 50 per cent and below as per Census 2001, including left wing extremism affected districts..., the ministry informed the House.

"The target was to raise the overall literacy rate of the country to 80 per cent and reduce gender gap to 10 per cent point by the end of XII five year plan.

"The scheme was extended up to March 31, 2018. During the implementation of Saakshar Bharat scheme, against the overall target of making 7.00 crore adult non-literates as literates, around 7.64 crore learners who passed the biannual Basic Literacy Assessment Tests conducted by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) between August, 2010 to March, 2018, were certified as literates," said Devi.

'Over 5 lakh boys dropped out of school at elementary level'

Around 9.30 lakh children at the elementary level across the country are out of school with more boys than girls not enrolled, according to the Ministry of Education. The maximum number of Out of School Children (OoSC) at the elementary level are in Uttar Pradesh followed by Bihar and Gujarat.

According to the data, 9,30,531 children at the elementary level are out of school including 5.02 lakh boys and 4.27 lakh girls.

Uttar Pradesh has 3.96 lakh out-of-school children followed by 1.34 lakh in Bihar and 1.06 lakh in Gujarat. "Under the Samagra Shiksha scheme, all the states and Union Territories (UTs) are required to conduct a household survey for identification of Out-of-School-Children (OoSC).

"This Department has developed an online module for compiling the data of OoSC identified by each state and UT and their mapping with Special Training Centres (STC) on the PRABANDH Portal," Devi said.

Special training for age-appropriate admission of out-of-school children and residential as well as non-residential training for older children, seasonal hostels and residential camps, special training centres at worksites, transport and escort facility are also supported to bring these children into the formal schooling system.

"The norms for special training is Rs 6000 per child per annum for non-residential courses and Rs 20,000 per child per annum for residential courses.”

"Since 2021-22, financial assistance upto Rs 2000 per annum is being provided for supporting OoSC of the age group of 16-19 years, belonging to socio-economically disadvantaged groups, for completing their education through NIOS/SIOS, for accessing course materials and certification," she added.

(With inputs from PTI)