karmakerala.com news

Malapuram, Nov 5

The journey from illiteracy to literacy!

Malapuram marks its place as a rich cultural and political heritage district in Kerala. The district which stands proudly with the largest Muslim population in Kerala has been in the news many times before, whether it’s the national movements like Khilafat or Moplah Rebellion. These days this district is again making news, but this time it’s an admirable feat achieved by one of the villages in Malappuram.

‘Nilambur Gram Panchayat’ has come up as a role model for lakhs of other villages in Kerala for becoming the first village to achieve the milestone of total primary education in the country. This laudable achievement came with nine months of dedicated and constant efforts by the Gram Panchayat.

The man behind this visionary accomplishment was the Sarpanch (village head), ‘Aryadan Shoukat’ who felt the need for some dynamic change in the education system of the village. According to him it was illiteracy which was hindering the growth and was pushing people towards backwardness and poverty.

One of the surveys carried out to know the actual status of education in the village highlighted the poor condition of education with 1500 villagers either illiterate or educated below 4th standard. The survey highlighted the dark but real side of the village which pointed out that the prevailing education system need a severe clean up.

In order to overcome this serious issue the Gram Panchayat started ‘Jyotirgamaya’ scheme which eyed to achieve full primary education for the village with the support of Kerala State Literacy Mission. In this process the facilitators were appointed and handbooks were prepared depending upon the syllabus of the State Literacy Mission. In first phase of this literacy mission workshops were launched to educate people the benefits of education.

During this mission it was also learnt that about 80% of the villagers were suffering from eye defects which was also hindering the growth. To solve this issue eye camps were conducted to make sure people face no problem while learning. In order to make this education program more successful and productive different techniques were used including cultural programmes and study tours in order to motivate the learners.

After all the hard work for nine months finally internal and external evaluations conducted by the state literacy mission and Calicut University judged the level of education and the results were satisfactory. Nilambur Gram Panchayat brought laurels to the district at last when the State Governor RL Bhatia declared the village to have achieved the total primary education status, making the dream come true for the sarpanch.