On World Literacy Day on Monday, the campaign for literacy in the city was marked by events that were symbolic and introspective.
At 4 p.m. on Marina beach, a group of youngsters — students as well as professionals — got together for a ‘back-a-thon’. Members from Make a Difference (MAD), a youth volunteer organisation, carried placards and shouted slogans to promote literacy. Their march, however, had a difference: instead of walking ahead from Gandhi statue, they did it backwards.
Veena Balakrishnan, of MAD, said that the concept was to “symbolically push illiteracy backwards”. Several Indian cities where MAD has its presence are also conducting similar walks, she said. “We have close to 190 volunteers in Chennai. We work in three children’s homes covering 228 children, where we teach the children English on weekends. Based on the requirement, we also started teaching science and mathematics this year,” she said.
D. Sundar, State co-ordinator, Tamil Nadu Science Forum, said they had launched a campaign to ‘save and strengthen government schools’. “Government schools are run on public money, and the public must take ownership. District headquarters will have signature campaigns,” he said.
There will also be a host of programmes over the next few months, he said. “We want to explore the real reason behind the declining enrolment in government schools and assess the impact of the English-medium sections which have been introduced,” he said. They were also calling for monitoring of enrolment in private schools, he added.
