KATHMANDU: With the theme: "Let's become literate, let's boost ability", the second-round of National Literacy Campaign - 2066 kicked off here today. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, who is also the chairman of the High-Level National Literacy Campaign, inaugurated the Rs 7.4 million campaign amid a function organised in Shikharapur Community Learning Centre (SCLC) at Farping in Kathmandu.

Addressing the function, the PM assured to make Farping a model village in terms of literacy in the country. Illiterates in Farping currently stand at 26, according to an estimate.

Shyam Bahadur KC, Chairman, SCLC, said plans are afoot to declare the six VDCs of Farping-Chalnakhel, Setidevi, Sheshnarayan, Dakshinkali, Chhaimale and Talkududecaur-illiteracy-free zones.

State Minister for Education Govinda Chaudhary, education secretaries Dipendra Bikram Thapa and Dr Ram Swarup Sinha, director of the Non-Formal Education Centre (NFEC) Jeevan Mishra and DEO Gyani Yadav also attended the inaugural function.

The NFEC, under the Ministry of Education, informed that the campaign will cover all the 3,915 VDCs and 58 municipalities across the country.

The literacy campaign will cover all the people, both males and females, in their age brackets15 to 60 years.

The weekly literacy classes will be of two hours duration per day.

The population of illiterate people, according to the government statistics, stands at around six million in the country.

First round of campaign had been able to make more than 1.3 million people literate, the officials claimed. By involving all the stakeholders-representatives of political parties, government and non-government organisations, schools, campuses, entrepreneurs, journalists and civil society- the NFEC aims to provide literacy to 12,105,00 adults within the next three months. Even if that ambitious target is achieved, there will still be another cohort of 4,800,000 illiteratea in the country.