Context: Recently, Ladakh has become the first administrative unit to achieve full functional literacy under the ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram (New India Literacy Program). 

ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram

• The ULLAS (Understanding of Lifelong Learning for All in Society) Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram is a centrally sponsored scheme being implemented from 2022-23 to 2026-27.

• The scheme seeks to cover all aspects of Adult Education to align with the National Education Policy(NEP) 2020. The NEP 2020 has recommendations for Adult Education and Lifelong Learning.

Outlay  for the Scheme 

• The total outlay for the scheme is Rs.1037.90 crore for 2022-23 to 2026-27 duration. The government of India's share is Rs.700 crore, and the state's share is  Rs.337.90 crore.   

Aim and Target of the Scheme 

• Non-literates of 15 years and above in all States/UTs in the country will be covered under the scheme.

• The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy is five crore learners or one crore learners per year. 

• The whole scheme is being implemented through online mode and the teachers will be volunteers. 

• The volunteer teachers will conduct the class in online mode through the ULLAS app.

Component of the  ULLAS-Nav Bharat Saaksharta Karyakram Scheme 

• The scheme has five components, namely;

1. Foundational Literacy and Numeracy- It means the ability to read and write and count,

2. Critical Life Skills - These include digital literacy, legal literacy,  financial literacy, healthcare and awareness, childcare and education, family welfare, etc.),

3. Basic Education- It includes education up to secondary stage (classes 9-12).

4. Vocational Skills- These include suitable skill development to obtain employment

5. Continuing Education. 

The vision of the ULLAS Scheme is to make Bharat - Jan Jan Saakshar and is based on the spirit of Kartvya Bodh and is being implemented on volunteerism.

• The ULLAS app can be used for registration of learners and volunteers either through self-registration or by surveyors.

• It will serve as a digital gateway for learners to engage in diverse learning resources through the DIKSHA portal of NCERT.

About DIKSHA portal

• It is a national platform for school education, an initiative of the National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education.

• It provides e-content for schools via an online portal and a mobile application.

• It was developed based on the core principles of open architecture, open access, open licensing, choice and autonomy.

• It is built on open-source technology that is made in India and for India, incorporating internet-scale technologies and allowing for a variety of use cases and solutions for teaching and learning.

Features

• The core building blocks of DIKSHA comprise majority of National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) building blocks, having enabled some successful use-cases of NDEAR such as energised textbooks, online courses, content authoring, content sourcing, interactive quizzes, question banks, chatbot, analytics and dashboard.

• To aid teaching and learning for Children With Special Needs (CWSN), a large number of audiobooks, ISL (Indian Sign Language) Videos, and a Dictionary have been made available on DIKSHA for CWSN.

About Union Territory of Ladakh 

• The Union Territory of Ladakh came into existence on 31 October 2019 with the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019. 

• The Act split the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh.

• Capital: Leh 

• Lieutenant Governor: Dr B.D Mishra