Naidu urges stakeholders to supplement govt’s efforts in adult education, skills training

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged all stakeholders, including the private sector, to supplement the government’s efforts in the field of adult education and skills training.

Stressing the need to make every adult literate, he highlighted the need to focus on digital and financial literacy among the people.

Addressing a gathering after presenting the prestigious Nehru and Tagore Literacy Awards here, the vice president said it was disappointing that despite making great progress in fields like IT and digitisation, India still has the largest number of illiterate persons in the world.

Calling for urgent steps to address this challenge, he wanted the literacy drive to become a people’s movement, an official statement from the Vice President Secretariat said.

“Every educated youth in villages and colonies should come forward and teach at least one person from their localities or communities how to write and how to operate digital devices and how to avail themselves of benefits of government schemes,” Naidu said and termed it as the educated youth’s PSR — Personal Social Responsibility.

‘Each one-teach one’ should not merely remain a slogan, rather it should become a motivating force for the youth, he said.

Indian Adult Education Association confers these Awards to individuals and institutions that have made noteworthy contributions to the field of education and national development.

Praising the awardees for their noteworthy contribution to the cause of adult education, the vice president asked everyone to resolve to make India a fully literate and educated nation.

“Literacy and education liberate people. They serve as the basic instruments of change and progress,” he said.

Noting that high rates of literacy are directly related to a country’s economic progress and the quality of life of its citizens, Naidu said literacy is even more important in a developing country like India.