Though Nepal witnessed a sea change in the years following the 1990 movement, adult literacy, despite the active involvement and efforts of the government and the non-governmental agencies, still continues to be a major bugbear. Since adult literacy programmes are conducted without carrying out proper research, and most often on the whims of those that conduct them, such programmes have hardly made any contribution to the people who want to enjoy the boon of education. Interestingly, since most of the literacy programmes are run in the same place, teaching the same people again. Statistics show a remarkable improvement in the literacy rate while whether the number of literate people has similarly increased is another question.

People have often complained that they were never informed or encouraged to participate while such programmes were conducted in their area. Adult literacy programmes have not produced desired outcome mainly because of the lack of coordination between the government and the campaigners. The agencies need to find out before they conduct their programmes whether they are actually required in the area where they intend to conduct the programme. Furthermore, they need to extend activities to areas outside urban centres, where people, despite their thirst for education, have been deprived of it. Most importantly, the literacy programmes must be conducted with a genuine intent to educate the people and not just spend the donors’ money whether the objective may be achieved or not.