Literacy rate of Kolkata falls to ninth in Bengal

Kolkata, Feb 19 (UNI) With the massive decline of about one lakh candidates in this year's Madhyamik examination beginning tomorrow and starting of an investigation by the West Bengal government into the causes, another revelation demands attention of all quarters - the ''City of Joy'' has fallen to ninth slot from the top in the district wise literacy rate.

Though the All Bengal Teachers Association (ABTA) has cited ''high educational cost'' for the lesser number of Madhyamik candidates this year compared to last year, but made no comment in regard to the downfall of the city's literacy rate.

According to the latest census (2001), while Cooch Behar leads the chart with a urban literacy percentage of 85.93, the city and its adjoining areas taken together, with the rate of literacy at 81.31 per cent, came down to the ninth place.

While a debate rages on the government's role in bettering the overall literacy, the city's literacy rate has even gone below the state's overall percentage of 81.63 per cent for urban areas.

State School Education Minister Partha Dey said ''the poor literacy rate of a number of people, who had come here to earn their livelihood from Bihar, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and other states was responsible for the downgradation of the city's literacy.'' Mr Dey, however, said the government was committed to improving the overall literacy rate of Kolkata with the successful implementation of ''Education for All.'' He noted that a special census was now being made for the district wise literacy rate and the government was awaiting the report.

Admitting the low literacy growth of Kolkata, Mr A Banerjee, Special Secretary, State Mass Education department, observed that ''a misunderstanding between the Left Front government and the previous Trinamool Congress-led Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had hampered the literacy mission.'' Mr Banerjee, however, refrained from clarifying the details of this ''misunderstanding.'' MORE UNI