Kakinada, July 30th: The Literacy program for girl children is taken up in a big way in East Godavari in identified mandals of low women’s literacy. Government has identified areas, particularly slums in all 9 municipalities, and one agency mandal in the district, as areas, which lag in women’s literacy as compared with the national percentage of 53.67 for women. The Rajiv Vidya Mission (RVM), formerly Sarva Siksha Abhiyan(SSA) was entrusted with identification of girls in the age group of 6-14 years who lag in this aspect. The RVM authorities during their survey found that the literacy rate was low in slum areas of Kakinada and Rajahmundry municipal corporation areas and in the seven municipalities of Tuni, Pitapuram, Peddapuram, Samaralkota, Ramachandrapuram, Mandapeta, and Amalapuram municipal areas.

In addition to this, the literacy rate in Maredumilli in agency mandal was also found low. As part of the special literacy campaign for 13,721 identified girls in the age of 6 to 14 years, 79 clusters were developed in which 212 model cluster schools were started in June 2009. The RVM has appointed two volunteers on par with Vidya volunteers for each model cluster school who will take up classes for these sections for two hours a day on regular school working days in evening. Authorities will conduct periodical tests for these trainees and assess their development. Trainees will be let out of the training after the girls develops knowledge in reading, writing in telugu and in simple arithmetic’s. The East Godavari RVM project officer, Mr. Y. Hrishikesh, said that these girls will be admitted into regular schools after training and the necessary motivation would be taken up by volunteers under the guidance of the RVM.