PANAJI
In a historic milestone for the State’s educational landscape, Goa has officially been declared the fully literate State in India under the ULLAS (Understanding Lifelong Learning for all in Society) Initiative. With this achievement, Goa becomes the Second State in India to attain the landmark after Mizoram.
However, Goa’s literacy rate -- 99.72 per cent -- is higher than that of Mizoram which stands at 98.2 per cent, exceeding ULLAS criteria of 95 per cent. Mizoram declared full functional literacy just ten days -- May 20 -- ahead of Goa.
On the occasion of 39th Statehood Day, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant officially declared Goa a fully literate State stating that it marked a historic milestone in the State’s educational journey.
With a 93 per cent literacy rate in 2022, Sawant said that building on this strong foundation, the ULLAS-New India Literacy Programme was implemented to identify and educate the remaining non-literate individuals. “It was a remarkable display of community sprit with teachers, students, educators, retired teachers came forward to lead the initiative and were backed by local panchayats, municipalities apart from the Education Department,” he said.
Later addressing a press conference highlighting the achievement, SCERT Director Meghna Shetgaonkar informed that as on date, Goa has got 4,163 illiterates, who showed unwillingness to be part of the initiative due to various reasons like age, medical grounds, etc.
She said that a total of 82 panchayats have declared 100 per cent literacy while 33 showed 95-99 per cent full functional literacy. Of the total 13 municipal areas, only one has achieved 99 per cent literacy.
In the remaining 76 panchayats, 12 municipalities and one corporation, total 6,299 illiterates were identified of which 2,136 showed interest in learning and successfully completed the entire learning phase including clearing the assessment test.
“With this Goa has achieved a literacy rate of 99.72 per cent which far exceeds the benchmark of 95 per cent for declaring a State as fully literate as per Union Ministry’ New India Literacy Programme,” Shetgaonkar said.
Union Ministry of Education Joint Secretary Archana Awasthi said that Goa is among the top three to declare fully literate. Mizoram and Ladakh are the other two.
She said that achieving 100 per cent literacy is not possible due to various reasons and hence the Ministry had set a 95 per cent benchmark to call it full literacy.
