New Delhi: A NITI Aayog report on school education has placed Kerala at the top of 20 large states in terms of quality, followed by Rajasthan and Karnataka for the 2016-17 academic year. At the other end of the spectrum, Uttar Pradesh ranked at the bottom position during -17, with Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab ranked before it.
In the Success of Our Schools-School Education Quality Index (SEQI) jointly released by the NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the World Bank, the overall performance score for the large states ranged from 76.6% for Kerala to 36.4% for Uttar Pradesh. Though UP figured at the bottom, the report also said that it has shown a high rate of improvement.
The report indexes states and Union Territories on learning outcomes for school-going children. SEQI, which used 2016-17 as the reference year and 2015-16 as the base year, was developed to evaluate the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
Among eight smaller states, Manipur, Tripura and Goa bagged the top-three positions, followed by Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. Chandigarh was the best performing Union Territory, followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Delhi, Puducherry, Daman & Diu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. Despite the Delhi government’s much-touted school education reforms, it was ranked third among UTs.
The index, prepared based on 30 indicators, was divided into two broad categories – outcomes of learning, access, infrastructure & facilities, and equity outcomes; and governance processes aiding outcomes.
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According to reports, the rankings also take into consideration parameters such as the number of toilets for girl children, the average score of students in mathematics and language, the transition rate of students from primary to upper primary levels and also from upper primary levels to secondary level.
The division of large and small states, while separating the performance of Union Territories, was to facilitate like-to-like comparisons. “Within each of these groups, the indicator values have been appropriately scaled, normalised and weighted to generate an overall performance score and ranking for each State and UT,” NITI Aayog said.
Speaking at the report’s launch, NITI Aayog chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said the index provides states and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.
“In line with the NITI Aayog’s mandate to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism, the index strives to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices across states and UTs,” Kant said.
Among the small states, the overall performance varied from 68.8% for Manipur to 24.6% for Arunachal Pradesh. In UTs, the overall performance scored from 82.9% for Chandigarh to 31.9% for Lakshadweep.
Out of the 20 large states, 18 improved their overall performance scores between 2015-16 and 2016-17. Five of these states – Haryana, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Gujarat – showed high rates of improvement, with increases of 18.5, 16.8, 13.7, 12.4 and 10.6 percentage points, respectively. The performance of Uttarakhand and Karnataka dropped, the only states to see negative progress.
The report highlighted that amid challenges of improving learning outcomes, educational access and infrastructure are continuing for states and UTs and require more focus and investments.
“The index comprises indicators that will help steer a state/UT’s efforts to improve the delivery of quality education. It is hoped that the index provides instructive feedback to them and non-governmental service providers to drive crucial reforms and encourage innovation in cost-effective policy approaches,” the report said.
It is hoped that the index will help facilitate the sharing of best practices and drive improvements in the delivery of quality education across India, the report said.
Kant said ranking of the states on school education learning outcomes is in continuation of its philosophy of ranking states on ease of doing business, health care and on meeting sustainable development goals.
NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar said the focus should no longer remain just on access to education but also on quality.
“Now, we see more children in our schools but how much is the learning outcome is the key as school education is the foundation to prepare the future generation,” Kumar said.
(With PTI inputs)