MALAPPURAM: The Jan Sikshan Sansthan (JSS) Malappuram district unit has done India proud by bagging the UNESCO literacy prize 2015. A non-governmental organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, it won the prize for its exemplary literacy drives and lifelong education programmes that changed thousands of poor lives in the district. The award which was declared at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Thursday as part of the 50th anniversary of the International Literacy Day celebrations will be distributed on September 8 in Paris.
Mr P.V. Abdul Wahab MP, chairman of the JSS unit, will represent Malappuram during the event and also address the education ministers from the UN member states as part of the ceremony. The award comes as a global recognition for the JSS Malappuram unit’s efforts to use multiple technological tools to support, manage and monitor the progress of the literacy-linked skill development programmes implemented for the rural adults, school dropouts, tribal communities, differently-abled and mentally challenged persons.
“Besides providing various skill-oriented programmes like tailoring, mobile repairing and bag-making for the economically backward sections, the JSS has also helped around 41,000 people, a majority of them widows and unmarried women, to form self-help groups and joint ventures. This has enhanced their standard of life and financial health,” said Mr Wahab. The JSS has put the focus on tribal settlements too.
The literacy training using the Braille materials and talking pens received special appreciation from the UNESCO jury. “The talking pens were a hit among the tribal illiterate,” said Mr V. Ummer Koya, director of the JSS unit. The electronic pen reads the text and reproduces the voice of the characters and words from a specially printed Malayalam textbook. The JSS district unit is also the implementing agency of the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in Karulayi, the village chosen by Mr. Wahab under the centre’s rural development scheme.
