(Seated from left) Adri member-secretary Shaibal Gupta, vice-chancellor of National University of Planning and Administration, New Delhi, professor Govinda Rao, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, former vice-chancellor of Arabic University, Qamar Hasan, at the seminar in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Patna, March 29: Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said a substantial amount of money need to be spent in the form of incentives to carry out a literacy programme. Thus the state government has started umpteen schemes to boost the programme.

“The state government initiated plenty of schemes to boost literacy programmes. The fruitful results of these schemes could be witnessed when we spend to commensurate a huge population of 10 crore. For this, the government needs to spend a large amount,” Modi said, while addressing a seminar organised by Asian Development Research Institute (Adri), Patna.

Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, said according to the 2001 census, state’s literacy rate is 52.43 per cent, which means half the state’s population remains illiterate.

Stating that female literacy rate in the state stood at 33.57 per cent, Modi pointed out that in order to give a fillip to the literacy rate of girls, the government launched Mukhyamantri Akshar Anchal programme with a view to make 40 lakh women literate within a year.

The idea behind launching the programme was to improve the literacy rate figures in the census, he said.

The deputy chief minister said since literacy programme could not be carried out in isolation — it must be linked with the poverty alleviation programme to achieve the desired results.

“Education plays an important role in wiping out widespread poverty, prevailing in the weaker sections of the society such as below poverty line families, scheduled castes, OBC and minorities. Hence the government has set its priority to focus on these groups for their skill development,” he said.

Professor R. Govinda, the vice-chancellor of National University of Educational Planning and Administration, said education programmes have to go beyond basic literacy classes and be linked with credit facilities as a critical component of development. The adult education programme must be linked with poverty alleviation programme for its success.

The lecture was presided over by vice-chancellor of Patna University Sudipto Adhikari. Adri member-secretary Shaibal Gupta delivered the welcome address.