Adult learners: Bakaram Jagir village aims 100-day full literacy

Hyderabad: Eighteen-year-old K. Kiranmayee is teaching villagers who are two to four decades older than her how to read and write. Her friends S. Sirisha and Priyanka are also doing the same, for a different batch of older students. The goal is to make the village 100 per cent literate in 100 days.

This is at Bakaram Jagir village (Moinabad mandal) on the city’s outskirts. Nearly 50 volunteers, mostly aged between 16 and 20 years and all from the same village, have donned the role of teachers to educate illiterate elders. They have been teaching basic Telugu lessons every day from 7.30 pm to 9 pm for the last two months.

Each volunteer takes a batch of four to six villagers. And their classrooms are makeshift arrangements with two to three mats spread under a streetlight next to a student or a volunteer’s house. Fifty such classrooms are functioning simultaneously under streetlights at different places in the village.

The initiative is part of a mission to achieve 100 per cent literacy in the village in 100 days. And the big test for these adult learners will be on August 21, when they will write the NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) test to determine whether they can read and write basic words in their native language.

Bakaram is the adopted village of governor’s adviser and retired IAS officer Mr K.V. Ramanachary. He took up various initiatives like Swachh Bharat, setting up a tailoring-cum-product centre and medical camps in the village apart from the 100-day literacy mission.

Mr Ramanachary is assisted by the Adult Education department, local sarpanch Mr Sudhakar Yadav, NGO Vijayam and other well wishers. Techie S. Kiran Kumar, who has written the book Game Changers, is actively involved in this initiative. He attended the launch programme in May and decided to jump on board.

“I was attracted to the idea of achieving full literacy in 100 days. Every Sunday I visit the village for motivational classes for volunteers and conducting e-learning sessions,” he felt.

Learners show keen interest
Bakaram is the eighth village in Ranga Reddy district to take up the 100-day, 100 per cent literacy challenge.

The deputy director of Adult Education Department (RR district) said that similar programmes were conducted in  Nagan-pally (adopted by the Ramoji Group), Dun-digal (MP Malla Reddy) Harshaguda (MP Devender Goud), Nagasamundar (MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy), Gattupally (RR joint collector Amrapali Kata), Tim-maipally (ZP chairperson Sunita Mahender Reddy) and Ramdaspally (sarpanch Srinivas Reddy).

Four thousand illiterate villagers were given basic lessons on how to read and write and 50 to 60 per cent of them cleared the NIOS test. The others will be writing the test again on August 21, he said.

Chevella MLA K. Yadaiah, collector M. Raghunandan Rao and district officials visited the village on Sunday on the invitation by techie Mr Kiran Kumar to give motivational talks to adult learners as well as ward members. The dignitaries interacted with villagers who showed them what they had learned in the last two months.

Ms K. Padmavathi said that women adult learners were finishing making dinner at home early to attend classes. The women learners’ task has been made easier by local cable operators. Cable network telecast is being halted completely from 7.30 to 9 pm throughout the village.