In a first, J&K holds FLNAT under ULLAS-NBSK adult education programme
Srinagar, Mar 17: In a first of its kind, the J&K School Education Department (SED) Sunday held the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT) under ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakram (NBSK), an adult education programme launched by the Centre.
Under the initiative, the department catered to around 1.87 people who appeared in FLNAT across Jammu and Kashmir.
The initiative aims to reach out to people above the age group of 15 years who have never been to schools.
“This is an exam of FLNAT being conducted first time in J&K under the ULLA scheme in which we target the people above 15 years of age who have not gone to schools,” Sajjad Hassan Masood, an official from MoE deputed to Kashmir to inspect the exam centres, told Greater Kashmir.
He said the scheme mainly aims to educate these uneducated and illiterate people and put in efforts to connect these people with day-to-day happenings.
“This scheme aims to make people literate. It connects them with numeracy so that they can use digital literacy and anything else. It also helps them to make a good livelihood,” Masood said.
He said that the target was to cater to 1.87 lakh such people but the test had crossed that limit as people from various far-off areas showed overwhelming responses for the test.
Around 8000 schools were used as exam centres and 13,000 teachers were deputed to conduct the exam of the learners under the adult education programme.
In Baramulla, the target was set to reach out to 15,407 learners.
However, the number of learners who opted for FLNAT was recorded as 17,570 on Sunday.
Besides the officials from MoE, Project Director Samagra Shiksha, J&K, and Rakesh Mangotra also visited several exam centres to see the participation of the learners.
Chief Education Officer (CEO) Baramulla, Balbir Singh Raina along with the officer from MoE visited various exam centres of the Baramulla district including the schools located in far-off areas of the Uri sector.
The SED has identified and registered over 6 lakh non-literate individuals, aged 15 and above, for adult education programmes.
These individuals have been registered on Understanding Lifelong Learning for All in Society (ULLAS) online portal run by the Centre for ‘Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakramme’ (NBSK) – an erstwhile adult education programme.
Launched by the Centre in 2022, the initiative was implemented in J&K from September 2023, coinciding with the Literacy Week commemoration in J&K.
The new centrally-sponsored scheme ‘Nav Bharat Saksharta Karyakramme’ has been approved for 2022-2027 to cover all the aspects of education for all (erstwhile termed as Adult Education) to align with National Education Policy-2020.
Notably, various surveys were conducted by concerned Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and those surveys were re-authenticated through the respective CEO offices.
“After identifying these non-literates, they were registered online on the ULLAS portal,” the official said.
He said that as per the survey, over 6 lakh non-literates have been registered on the portal till date.
“The actual number of non-literates who have been identified during the survey is expected to be higher but as of now, around 607,621 individuals have been registered online,” the official said.
He said that along with the registration of non-literates, the department has also registered volunteers who will teach these individuals.
“This scheme is a volunteer-driven program, and volunteers can be government employees, retired employees, or any other educated person. Currently, 50,404 volunteers are registered on the online portal, who will teach non-literates at their convenience,” the official said.
The Centre has fixed a target of 5 crore learners for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy by using the ‘Online Teaching, Learning and Assessment System (OTLAS)’ in collaboration with NIC, NCERT, and NIOS.
