The West Singhbhum unit of a food security forum has issued a public demand letter to the MLAs and MP of the region for a special literacy campaign for primary school students.

Activists of the West Singhbhum unit of Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch also plan to personally meet all the five MLAs of their district (Manoharpur, Chaibasa, Majhgaon, Chakradharpur and Jagannathpur Assembly constituencies) and Singhbhum MP Geeta Koda on Monday and hand over the demand letter.

“A few days back, the forum members had met West Singhbhum deputy commissioner on the same issue but no administrative initiative has been taken in this regard. This has made us approach the lawmakers,” said Siraj Dutta, a member of the Manch.

The demand letter points out that closure of schools in the last two years has had a terrifying effect on the academic ability of children, especially in rural areas. During this time, the access of online education to most of the rural children was very less and they have received little or no education.

“Most of the children sitting in Class 5 are not even able to write their names and far from addition and subtraction, they are not able to count the numbers properly. The condition of the children of the class below them is even more pathetic. At present, children of classes 1-5 are being taught letter and number recognition and counting in schools and not their class syllabus. The possibility that many children, especially in rural areas, may drop out is undeniable. It is clear that the lack of educational capacity will have an impact on livelihood, health etc. This is an emergency situation for the future of Kolhan’s children,” the letter states.

The letter adds that in such a situation, inequality between children who had access to online education and coaching and those who didn’t would also increase in the coming days.

“This means between urban and rural children, between non-tribal and tribal, middle and upper class and working class. An entire generation of rural tribal-indigenous people is at risk of being under-educated. In such a situation, there is a dire need of regular and quality education in schools. Although the government has decided to teach remedial courses within a limited time frame of the school, but in the present situation, along with regular education in the school, a special initiative is also needed,” the letter states.

The letter demands a comprehensive literacy campaign, especially for primary school children, in the district for the next one year with an objective to teach foundation course to all children after school hours so that not a single child in the district gets dropped out in this situation and each child’s basic academic potential can be developed by next year. Under the campaign, every evening (after regular school), children should be taught foundation course studies for two hours in their own locality.

Local youths who have passed Class X should be given the responsibility of teaching the children at the village level. The campaign should be conducted from the district mineral foundation trust fund.

The government had in its budget allocated Rs 11,660.68 crore for school education, an increase of over 6 per cent from last year’s budget.