Chief guest and other dignitaries with the participants of Saakshar Bharat Training on interpersonal media campaign in Kohima on February 18. (Morung Photo)
Kohima: A four day long Saakshar Bharat training on interpersonal media campaign got underway here today at Zonal Council Hall under the aegis of the Directorate of School Education, State Literacy Mission Authority (SLMA) in collaboration with SRC Tripura.
Speaking on the occasion as the chief guest, Sentiyanger Imchen, IAS, commissioner & secretary health & family welfare & CEO termed the training programme as important and hoped that it would bring a positive impact. Touching on adult education, he asserted that unless the persons know their rights and entitlements, they would find difficult to access to various facilities. He was optimistic that the trainees would enlighten and empower the illiterate persons and make a difference in their lives. Also touching on electoral literacy, he said the voters turn out in elections in Nagaland touches not less than 90%, which is very high in comparing with other states. He also stressed on the need to stop malpractices during the elections and at the same time emphasized on the need to reform the electoral process.
T. Imkonglemba Ao, IAS, commissioner & secretary school education & SCERT chaired the function. Debajyoti Banik, SRC Tripura delivered keynote address while Th. Tunglut, chief manager SBI Kohima delivered short speech. Vote of thanks was proposed by K. Phesao, director school education.
Topics to be covered during the four day long programme included disaster management and civil defence by Dr. Hovithal N. Sothu, state coordinator (DM Cell) ATI; electoral literacy by Vekho Vero, deputy chief election officer; interpersonal media campaign by Debajyoti Banik, SRC Tripura; preparation of NIOS exam i.e pre-exam, during exam and post exam activities by SLMA; financial literacy by Rajib Malla SRC Tripura; electoral literacy by Tanuj Sharma; disaster management by Abhijit Sarkar SRC Tripura; legal literacy- rights, rights & entitlements by Kishore Acharjee, SRC Tripura. K. Phesao, director school education, will grace the valedictory session on February 21.
About Saakshar Bharat Mission
Saakshar Bharat Mission, a centrally sponsored scheme of Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India (GoI) was launched in 2009. It aims to further promote and strengthen adult education, specially of women, by extending educational options to those adults who having lost the opportunity of access to formal education and crossed the standard age for receiving such education, now feel a need for learning of any type, including, literacy, basic education (equivalency to formal education), vocational education (skill development), physical and emotional development, practical arts, applied science, sports and recreation.
The Mission has four broad objectives, namely; impart functional literacy and numeracy to non-literate and non-numerate adults, enable the neo-literate adults to continue their learning beyond basic literacy and acquire equivalency to formal educational system, impart non and neo-literates relevant skills development programmes to improve their earning and living conditions and promote a learning society by providing opportunities to neo literate adults for continuing education.
The principal target of the mission is to impart functional literacy to 70 million adults in the age group of 15 years and beyond. Auxiliary target of the mission is to cover 1.5 million adults under basic education programme and equal number under vocational (skill development) programme.
