- Uttarakhand cabinet approved proposal declaring state
- State’s literacy exceeds 98%, meeting ULLAS program criteria.
- Cabinet also approved amendments to Sanskrit Education Regulations, 2026.
Dehradun: The Uttarakhand cabinet has approved a proposal to declare the state “fully literate” based on the literacy standards of the National Education Policy 2020, officials said on Friday.
The decision was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami here on Thursday.
School Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat said the state has met the criteria set under the central government’s Understanding Lifelong Learning for All in Society (ULLAS) programme.
Uttarakhand currently boasts a literacy rate of over 98 per cent.
The minister has directed officials of the school education department to expedite the formal proposal to the government. Following the cabinet’s final approval, the proposal will be forwarded to the central government for official status.
A state is considered fully literate under the ULLAS programme when the literacy rate among adults reaches approximately 95 per cent or more, effectively covering the non-literate population.
The programme focuses on individuals above the age of 15, providing basic literacy, critical life skills, vocational training, basic education, and continuing education.
So far, five states — Mizoram, Goa, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim — have achieved this status.
To achieve the targets in Uttarakhand, the school education department collaborated with social organisations, corporate units, and citizens to adopt villages, the minister said.
The initiative focused on educating illiterate adults, with priority given to women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other deprived groups. Areas with a female literacy rate below 60 per cent were prioritised during the drive, he added.
In another decision, the cabinet gave its assent to the promulgation of the Uttarakhand Sanskrit Education (Amendment) Regulations, 2026.
The state previously enacted the Uttarakhand Sanskrit Education Act, 2014, which established the Uttarakhand Sanskrit Education Council as a statutory body responsible for granting recognition to Sanskrit schools, determining curricula, and conducting examinations.
The fresh amendments modify the Uttarakhand Sanskrit Education Regulations, 2023, which were originally issued to implement the 2014 Act.
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