Nilambur: It was a dream she had held on to for 25 years and now that M K Jameela is finally looking forward to writing her class X examination at the age of 40, she can hardly believe it.
But thanks to the Nilambur municipality, which is working hard to make sure that everyone in its jurisdiction has passed class X, many men and women like Jameela can hope  to brandish the certificate which had escaped them when young for one or the other reason.
Being forced to cut short their education owing to economic difficulties or early marriage, they now feel they have been given a second chance.
And 57-year old Ambattuparambil Mohammadali, who didn’t bother to do his class X examination and opted to go to the Gulf instead for work when he was still a teenager, doesn't intend to let this opportunity go by.
Having returned after spending nearly three decades overseas, he still nurtures the hope of clearing his class X examination. “Opting for a job in the Gulf was not unusual those days but I always wanted to do my class 10 examination. This project, Sameeksha- 10 for All, has come as a blessing for people like us, “ he says.
Many of those taking advantage of the project have children who are highly qualified, with engineering or MBA degrees to their name. While Jameela’s son has done his engineering, another candidate’s daughter has done her MBA and is a HR manager at the Infopark in Kochi.               
The municipality came up with the project, now being implemented  with support from the Kerala State Literacy Mission, after doing a survey to gauge the demand for it, explains O Sasidharan, its coordinator.
“The response was overwhelming as 2,519 persons cutting across caste and religion registered for it and of them 1,167 were women,” he adds. As many as 110 were from scheduled castes and 50 from scheduled tribes.      
The first examination under the two year scheme, launched by Union minister of state for human resources development, Shashi Tharoor on January 6, is scheduled to begin on September 4 and will be conducted by the Kerala Board of Secondary Education.
The municipality is optimistic about the performance of the “students.”  “We expect 100 per cent results,” says Sasidharan, adding that the registration for the examination will be completed by the first week of August.
Chairman of the Nilambur municipality and the driving force behind the project, Aryadan Shouktah, believes literacy means much more than the mere ability to read and write.
“Literacy in the true sense of the word means empowerment because a literate person is capable of acquiring and processing knowledge from diverse sources and acting on them independently,” he notes, hoping that projects like Sameeksha will help people be more active in the decision making process at the grassroots.
The entire cost of the project,covering the registration and examination fee of all students and the wages of the staff teaching them, estimated at Rs 53 lakh, is being borne by the municipality.
Classes are held Monday to Friday at 73 centres such as libraries, anganwadis, madrassas and schools, classified as day and night, according to requirement.
While the day centres for women work from 2 pm to 5 pm, the night centres are open from 6 pm to 9 pm. The classes are scheduled according to the convenience of the participants as most women need to complete their household chores before attending them and men have their jobs to think of.  
High Literacy rate: merit turns curse for state
Sabloo Thomas | DC
Thiruvananthapuram: The Central Government has actually penalised the state government for achieving total literacy, feels Adult Education expert V.Reghu.
Reghu, who was the Former Director, Centre for Adult Continuing Education and Extension (CACEE), Kerala University and Former Professor and Dean in Youth Studies, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, (RGNIYD), Sriperumbudur, has said that central funding has stopped ever since the State achieved the target of total literacy.
As per UNESCO norms, literacy over 90 per cent is considered equivalent to total literacy. The current literacy rate in Kerala is 93.91 per cent.
This has affected the state, which has been moving towards the next stage of literacy. Funds crunch has already affected the continuing education programmes for neo literates. 
This has also dealt a blow to  programmes aimed at elevating neo literates to the level of fourth standard, seventh standard, tenth standard and plus two. One of the goals was to make the state a primary-level literacy state, meaning that the learning level of all persons in the state will be made equivalent to that of fourth standard, Reghu said.
Reghu said that the central government was of the view that as the state government has already achieved its target, there was no need for more funds to the state. This was because there were otherstates which had literacy rates below the national average. and funds get diverted to these states.