Maharashtra falls short of its target of making 12.40L people ‘literate’ as only over 4 lakh people qualify exam

The Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT) was conducted in September 2023 to certify qualifying learners as ‘literate.’ While over 6,20,000 learners were registered on the ULLAS platform, 75% of them (around 4,65,000) took the FLNAT. Of the attendees, 4,25,906 candidates qualified the exam and are deemed to be ‘literate’. The remaining over 30,000 learners are expected to attempt the exam again this year.

The planning office of the education department has decided take concerted efforts to achieve its target of making 12.40 lakh people ‘literate’ in the period from 2024 to 2025.

This staggered progress has been due to the several challenges that the scheme has been facing since its inception.
Though it was supposed to start in 2022, NILP was finally launched only a year later in 2023.

Deputy director (special schemes) Rajendra Kshirsagar from the education department said, “Firstly, we were able to start implementing the scheme only a year later in 2023, due to some issues at the state-government level.

Considering that, we did quite well with the number of people we registered. Secondly, the teachers boycotting the scheme and its survey was a major impediment. It was finally in December that the scheme picked pace. Even now, some teachers are continuing their boycott of the scheme but even then, we are hoping to meet our target in the period 2024-25.”