KATHMANDU: Educationalists today called for the mobilisation of local bodies for the effective implementation of literacy campaign. They also stated that the last year's campaign had only a marginal impact on the targeted groups as the programme was run without mobilising the local bodies. Speaking at a discussion programme organised by Education Journalists' Network today, Prof Dr Bidhyanath Koirala, an education specialist, said that mobilisation of local bodies was a must to make the literacy campaign fruitful. “Local bodies could be helpful in getting authentic data on the number of illiterates.The government authority should give attention towards mobilising local bodies for data gathering before the second year's literacy campaign kicks off,” he said. He also reiterated that human resource mobilisation was more important than investment. “Proper mobilisation of human resources can be helpful in times of budget crunch,” he said, stressing that the reference materials for literacy classes should be made available to the respective districts rather than confining them in Kathmandu. Prof Mana Prasad Wagle, Dean, School of Education, Kathmandu University, however, doubted that the literacy campaign this year would amount to any appreciable consequence in literacy front since it was politically motivated. He said, “If the government executes the literacy campaign in the same fashion as had been the case last year, it would take at least 17 years to literate all the illiterates of the country.” He also bemoaned that the government has reduced its spending on illiterates. “The three-year interim plan had allocated Rs 10,000 per person per year for their literacy. While the present coalition government has allocated just Rs 200 per each illiterate. If this is the scenario, how can we achieve ambitious targets of literacy?” he questioned.