BHUBANESWAR: In an effort to bridge the adult literacy gap in Odisha, the state government has set an ambitious target of enrolling at least 25 lakh people, deprived of formal education, in Centre’s ULLAS (Understanding Lifelong Learning for All in Society) programme in the new 2026-27 academic year.

Accordingly, field functionaries of the School and Mass Education department have been asked to initiate necessary steps in this regard. Sources in the directorate of elementary education (DEE) said a direction to this effect has been issued by the department to all district education officers (DEOs) and block education officers (BEOs). The additional DEOs and additional BEOs in the districts have been made nodal officers for implementation of the drive.

As per Census 2011 data, the government is required to impart education to 91.52 lakh people, including 30.33 lakh males and 61.19 lakh females, who were never a part of schooling. The move is aimed at making Odisha fully literate.

The ULLAS initiative, a key part of the New India Literacy Programme (NILP) for functional literacy, has been rolled out in the state since 2022 to address the challenge. Launched in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020, the initiative acts as a gateway for non-literate adults to gain essential life skills through community and voluntary teachers-supported learning.

As part of the programme, learners enrolled on the ULLAS platform are tested through the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Assessment Test (FLNAT) and receive certificates from the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

DEE officials, however, admitted that learners’ mobilisation and their pass percentage in FLNAT has not been very encouraging in the last four years. In fact, in 2025-26 academic session that concluded two days back, only about 10.55 lakh learners appeared for the FLNAT test against the given target of 22.60 lakh.

“Keeping this in view, the DEOs and BEOs have been asked to start the survey and enrolment of those who have not received formal education, right from the beginning of this new academic session,” said a DEE official. He said they have been asked to rope in NGOs, self-help groups, youth clubs, volunteers, unemployed youth and retired teachers if required, to run the mass campaign.

This story has been written by Sudarsan Maharana.