NEW DELHI, NOV 19: In a move expected to raise the hackles of entrenched bureaucrats and professional consultants, the Ministry for Human Resource Development (HRD) has decided to phase out the adult literacy programme in five years.With it will go a fiefdom that comprises the National Literacy Mission (NLM), whose ``time-bound'' target keeps changing, but which still won the UNESCO award for literacy; the Directorate of Adult Education and the National Institute of Adult Education, whose functions overlap with each other; and the Rural Functional Literacy Project, which by the Ministry's own admission has not had the ``expected impact''. The State Exchequer will save, by cutting down on the bureaucracy, Rs 113 crore but it will also mean fewer positions for joint secretaries and fewer sources of patronage for voluntary organisations.The first step towards cutting down ``waste of money'' was taken on November 15 when the Bureau of Adult Education and the NLM were lumped together with elementary education in a ministerial restructuring. The idea is that when the Education Guarantee Scheme is implemented, it will make the adult literacy programme redundant. The idea is also to focus resources on elementary education, for which a fresh bill will soon be introduced in Parliament.The other department will handle secondary education and higher education. While the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, as it will henceforth be known, will be headed by the current Education Secretary, M K Kaw, it is expected that the second department will be looked after by an additional secretary. The Education Department as a whole has a large contingent of bureaucrats - as many as nine joint secretaries and one additional secretary.Adult Education, in any case, has the lowest allocation of all HRD departments: while elementary education was allocated Rs 3,034 crore in the 1999-2000 budget, secondary education bagged Rs 1,136 crore and university and higher education was given Rs 2,392 crore.
