The Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) (translated into English as People's Education Institute) is an initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India to improve occupational skills and technical knowledge of non/neo literates and persons having a rudimentary level of education but not completing high school in…

Education for All has been an international driver in the past decade for states that have been progressing rapidly and been making remarkable progress in education practically eradicating illiteracy and achieving nearly universal primary education along with gender parity. India being the second largest populated country in the world constituting…

This paper discusses the need for new model and approach to solve the problem of illiteracy of the most backward section of the society-women among scheduled and other backward classes. The empirical support for the study is testing, interview and observation conducted on the present status of 100 from among 1,500 adult learners who attended a…

An ethnographic study examined illiterates and their understanding of literacy. The theoretical background of the study is based on the thesis of "contemporary orality": that India is a fundamentally oral culture that retains all the characteristics of primary orality (Walter Ong's term) through the use of speech as the dominant medium…

This paper addresses the logic and the structure of economic motivations for adult literacy promotion. It uses as an example the People's Republic of China to demonstrate how economic motivations can best serve the cause of adult literacy and suggests applying these concepts to India. The paper is organized in three parts. In the first part, the…

The Farmers' Functional Literacy Program has been conducted in conjunction with an intensive agricultural development program in the villages of India since 1968. A recent innovation of significance to developing countries, the program incorporates the concept of linking education to development. This joint venture of three governmental ministries…

This report contains one man's impressions of the state of adult literacy education in several countries of Africa and in India. The first country reported on is Ethiopia, where signs of a capitalist society were evident in that officially Marxist country, where literacy education was still a priority in the midst of a waning famine. Ethiopia had…

The Each One Teach One (EOTO) literacy project undertaken by universities and colleges is one of five methods of conducting adult education programs in India. A basis for an understanding of EOTO is a definition of literacy--a person is considered literate if he or she has mastered accuracy and fluency in word recognition, comprehension of…

This paper looks at the following aspect of the professionalization of adult education in India: professional training of adult educators. It first defines professionalization and then discusses the following essential prerequisite for that process: the development of a well-designed professional training program with adequate institutional…

A literacy project in the eastern hill ranges of India is reported, based on 20 years of involvement, at the beginning of which the tribal language, Adivasi Oriya, was not yet a written language. The literacy rate among tribals in the agricultural community is about 10%. Researchers studied the tribal language, gave it an alphabet, adapted the…

There have been few, if any, significant changes in educational policy regarding the provision of adult literacy education in India over the past two decades. The changes that have taken place in India's adult literacy programs have occurred in the realm of technology rather than ideology, thereby supporting a continuity in the existing…

India has made considerable progress toward universal primary education but has the dubious distinction of having the highest illiteracy rates in the world. Stringent endeavors are being made at the national, state, and district levels to eradicate illiteracy through mass approaches and programs. Extension is recognized as the third dimension of…

A study to examine literacy programs for women in rural villages in India interviewed all program directors and staff and some women involved in nongovernmental (NGO) projects in the Pune area. NGO officials were universally disenchanted with government programs. NGOs' goals varied from preschool education in the villages to agricultural reform to…

The National Literacy Mission Authority has begun pilot testing an innovative open distance education program for newly literate individuals in 20 districts of India. Using open and distance education where literacy is at its infancy is feasible because newly literate persons can manage to read printed material and have the motivation to read and…

States that 99 percent of India's education budget is spent on formal education, which is not relevant to the needs of most Indians whose many languages and socioeconomic conditions require the traditional nonformal methods. Sharply criticizes others' emphasis on "elitist" imposition of uneconomic, one-language, formal educational…