What is literacy? Why do the elderly need to study? How does one teach tribespeople who live deep inside the forest?
These were some of the questions posed by a 15-member group of students from City Vocational Higher Secondary School, PMG, to Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority Director and writer P.S. Sreekala when they visited the mission office as part of the General Education Department’s ‘Vidyalayam Pratibhakalodoppam.’
Ms. Sreekala told Class 8 student Anagha that merely reading and writing did not make someone literate.
It was only a means to acquiring knowledge. Only if one had the basic understanding of all subjects related to the environment in which one lived, could he or she claim to be literate, she said.
Ms. Sreekala clarified to Plus One student Ashfaq that one needed not go into the forests to teach tribespeople. People selected from within the tribal community were being deployed as teachers to teach other tribespeople. This move was benefiting them too.
About the purpose of education, Ms. Sreekala told Plus Two student Salma that its aim was not only securing employment but also transforming a person into a good human being. It was also about securing for others the rights one has secured through education.
Conditions should be created so that those who are forced to discontinue education owing to various circumstances can get back to it, whatever be their age, she said.
Before heading back, the visitors invited Ms. Sreekala to their school to speak to the students. School Head Teacher Shami P.B., teachers Lekha S. Nair, Manju C. Nair, Lisi George, and Balagopal accompanied the students.
