A study of the Literacy Rate of Rural Secondary School Children (Rambewa Educational Division in the Anuradhapura District).

Abstract

Rural development and urban development plays a crucial role in the development of a country knowledge for the children in a Country. The School is the place that provides knowledge for the children in a country. The primary objective of the school is to make a knowledgeable society to the country. The information literacy can be given as one important concept for this. Accordingly, skill on information literacy for exploring information for student’s academic purposes and other purpose is timely needed. Therefore, the level of information literacy on rural school are less than urban schools in present context. The purpose of this study is to explore the literacy skills of the secondary school children and to identify the reasons for their lack of knowledge in information literacy. The sample was obtained from a random sample from 10 secondary schools in grade 10 to grade 11 in the Rambewa educational division in the Anuradhapura district. The random sampling method was used. A questionnaire was designed and collected the data using this tool. The study demonstrated that children’s literacy rate in rural areas are comparatively low in terms of literacy rate in schoolchildren of urban areas. The main reason for this was the scarcity of resources. Such as lack of library facilities and lack of knowledge on information, literacy of both teachers and students also found through the study.