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Tools for effective literacy
drive
Linking
livelihood with literacy, the participants at the ICT for
literacy workshop for E-9 countries felt, would lead to better
productivity paving way for greater economic development.
Bangalore:
Participants at an international workshop
on literacy on Thursday stressed the need for utilising Information and
Communication Tools (ICT) for advocating the benefits of literacy
programmes and at the same time link it with livelihood.
Linking
livelihood with literacy, the participants at the “ICT for literacy
workshop for E-9 countries” felt, would lead to better productivity
paving way for greater economic development.
Wipro Chairman Azim
Premji set the tone for the conference by pointing out that ICT in
literacy should attempt to achieve equity – bridging the digital
divides between rich-poor and urban-rural.
“Mere introduction of
ICT will not automatically create the kind of impact or change that we
intend to cause. Technology will induce change only if accompanied by
changes in ideas, processes and way of viewing things,” he said.
He
said if teachers do not see that ICT is helpful in their work, there is
no hope for the same turning out to be an effective tool in the mission
for literacy. He said that ICT must become integrated in
teacher’s
repertoire of classroom practice.
Mr Premji decried the
usual
tendency of delivering every learning item through ICT. He said ICT is
most effective when the learning item requires visualisation or
simulation. “I believe we must use ICT to deliver that which is best
delivered through it, and use other pedagogical tools wherever they are
more effective,” he said. In his address, Union Human Resources
Development Minister Arjun Singh sought private participation in the
literacy mission. He said the national literacy mission was started in
1988 for universalisation of primary education, however, the goal still
seemed to be quite far.
Appreciating the drive
on primary
education by the Azim Premji Foundation, Mr Singh said that other
private entrepreneurs too need to chip-in. “Government alone cannot do
everything. Many a times our efforts fall short of expectations. There
should be support from the private sector,” he said. He also sought
involvement of the younger generation in the literacy drive.
Ms
Vandana Jena, director, National Literacy Mission, said the scaling up
of adult literacy programmes requires a coordinated national financial
strategy. Budgetary allocation to literacy must increase but not at the
expense of investment in quality of schooling, she said.
The
three-day workshop organised by National Literacy Mission and UNESCO is
to provide a platform for policy makers, administrators, programme
managers to share information and experiences and discuss strategies
for the present and the future course of action for undertaking
programmes for ICT for literacy. E-9 initiative was launched
in 1993
wherein governments of Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India,
Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan pledged to universalise primary
education and significantly reduce illiteracy in their respective
countries.
This
article appeared in The Economic Times, issue dated 5 October, 2007
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