Bajura declared fully literate district

By Our Correspondent  Bajura, July 17:  With the success in achieving 97.39 per cent literary rate, Bajura district has been declared a fully literate district. So far, 60 districts have been declared fully literate. 

After all the municipalities and rural municipalities were declared achieving near-full literacy, that declaration was made on Thursday. 

Federal parliamentarian Lal Bahadur Thapa made the announcement at a formal programme organised by the District Coordination Committee, Bajura.  Harka Bahadur Singh, chief of education development and coordination unit, said that Bajura was declared literate after an estimated 97.31 per cent of the population of the age group 15-60 years was found literate. 

According to him, those who can read and write their mother tongue, national language, can read letters written in Nepali and their mother tongue, can write and read the full name of their family members, can use mobile phone, calculator, number letters, can write and read numbers from zero to nine are considered literate. 

Similarly, those who can count numbers from one to a hundred, can keep a record of transactions, can read signboards and posters, can show active participation in the community with their ideas, can tell the time by looking at the clock, can tell the date by looking at the wall calendar and can fill bank vouchers and can issue cheques are considered literate. 

Chief Singh said that out of the 12 indicators, one is considered literate if he or she meets any one of them. 

In order to meet these indicators, literacy classes were started in all the nine municipalities some 12 years ago. 

This literacy class was operated as per the requirement, with classes running for three months in some municipalities while for one or two months in others.

Before the declaration, the unit had monitored whether the indicators were met or not. 

Speaking at the event, Thapa said education is essential for the country’ development, so the emphasis should be placed on education.