Bhubaneswar: The new BJP government has started preparations to make Odisha 100 percent literate by 2036, when Odisha will complete 100 years of its formation.
For this, both the School and Mass Education and the Higher Education Departments are preparing action plans to achieve the ambitious target.
During the last Census conducted in 2011, the literacy rate in the State was around 73 percent. At that time, there was a growing difference in literacy between urban and rural areas, while the literacy rate remained low in the tribal areas.
In 2011, the literacy rate in urban areas of the State was above 85 percent, while in rural areas it was slightly higher than 70 percent. Since then, various private literacy surveys have shown that the state’s literacy rate has now crossed 75 percent, while it is more than 85 percent in the coastal districts.
In the state, enrollment at the primary level is now nearly 100 percent while the dropout rate of more than half at the high school level is a cause of concern for the government. Students from Class 1st to 8th are passing without any difficulty, while they face problems in Class 9th and 10th and become school dropouts. The problem is becoming more complicated in tribal areas and western Odisha. Even thousands of students who filled the form for matriculation examination did not appear in the examination.
In the same way, children studying in the fourth and fifth classes are often complained about their poor intelligence quotient. Children studying in these classes are not able to write their names in English, while they are also unable to do the common math. So preparations have been started for how to increase the standard of education, sources said.
The Government of India has set the target of a developed India by 2047, while the states have also set targets for this at their own levels. Accordingly, while the State government is aiming to build a developed Odisha by 2036, the education sector is being given maximum importance.
As the first step is to achieve 100 percent literacy in the State, it has been reported that preparations are being made to achieve this goal.
However, preparations have been started to raise the literacy rate to 100 percent by 2036 in all the districts of the State, especially in tribal dominated districts.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has held a review meeting regarding the State School and Mass Education department and Higher Education Department recently. The meeting brainstormed about achieving complete literacy by 2036.