Participants in a daylong seminar on ‘mass literacy based on vocational education’ on Saturday stressed change in mindset and strategy for success in mass literacy movement.
The Society for People’s Education, Empowerment and Development Trust, in collaboration with Mass Literacy Movement, organised the programme at BDS auditorium in the city.
About 80 people including primary education directorate officials, teachers, guardians, mass literacy programme activists, local government representatives and journalists took part in the seminar.
The programme, presided over by AHM Shamsul Islam Dipu, head of mission, SPEED Trust Barisal, was addressed, among others, by Talukdar Md Yunus, AL lawmaker and member of parliamentary standing committee for primary and mass literacy, Nani Gopal Das, deputy director of secondary and higher education directorate, Mosharraf Hossain, deputy manager GSO, Shanewaz Moni, Dalia Nasrin, Nilratan Datta, education officials, Nasiruddin Biplab, Sanjib Das, Hemayet Uddin Himu, journalists, Alpana Barua and Subrata Das, NGO officials.
Tapankar Chakraborty presented the keynote paper on the topic and advocate Manabendra Batobayal conducted the open discussion session.
In the interactive sessions, the participants observed that mass literacy with the zero rate of dropouts must be given top priority up to secondary level to achieve the goal of ‘education for all’ within the MDG dateline of 2015.
Nationalisation of primary education in a unitary system and vocational system-based process could make the mass literacy programme speedier and successful, they said.
About the rate of mass literacy in the country, they, quoting data collected by Education Watch in 2007, said national rate of literacy above seven years of age was 46.15 per cent while it was 47.7 in Barisal, 45.8 in Khulna, 37.2 in Rajshahi, 35.2 in Dhaka, 33.6 in Sylhet and 32.3 per cents in the Chittagong division.
They detected economic insolvency, river erosion, engaging children in family and financial activities as the main causes drawbacks in mass literacy programmes in the region.
They suggested ensuring financial security for the students, preventing child labour, distributing sufficient budget for creating and maintaining permanent mass literacy infrastructure, free learning equipments, tiffins for the students, developing attractive, coordinated, strong and continuous learning programme and procedure.
The discussants said mass awareness and self-participatory active role of mass people in both the privileged and under-privileged classes was the most important factor for the success of mass literacy, formal and non-formal education.
