The central government’s policy think-tank on Monday launched the school education quality index aimed at evaluating the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
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It is states like Kerala and others including, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam were ranked as the best-performing (among large states), each achieving an overall performance score above 60.0% while Uttar Pradesh was ranked last according to Niti Aayog.
The government policy think-tank that replaced the decades old Planning Commission launched the school education quality index which was aimed to evaluate the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector on Monday, September 30.In this report, Kerala has the highest overall performance score of 76.6% while Uttar Pradesh was last among large states, with an overall performance score of 36.4%.
Among the smaller states, Manipur ranks first among the Small States on the outcomes category, with a score of 82.1%. Arunachal Pradesh has the lowest score, at 27.2%. In the Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes category, Mizoram has the highest score of 47.5% while Arunachal Pradesh ranks last with a score of 18.3%.
Manipur, Tripura and Goa are the top-performing states, each achieving an overall performance score above 55%. Manipur has the highest overall performance score of 68.8%. Arunachal Pradesh ranks last, with an overall performance score of 24.6%.
Union Territories like Chandigarh has the highest overall performance score of 82.9% while Lakshadweep ranks last, with an overall performance score of 31.9%. Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli are the top-performing UTs, with each achieving an overall performance score above 50%.Delhi, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep performed better on the governance processes aiding outcomes category, the report noted.
The School Education Quality Index (SEQI) aims to bring an outcomes focus to education policy by providing States and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.
It was developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders ministry of human resource development (MHRD), the World Bank and sector experts, the index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.
“Quality school education is a function of a targeted focus on learning outcomes, efficient governance structures, provision of necessary infrastructure and ensuring equitable academic opportunities.
SEQI is meant to exist in a’ symbiotic ecosystem’, which converges efforts across the government to evolve an education assessment and vision, which resonates with the ideals of a youthful nation and which realises the potential of every single child across India,” Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.
Both the states and the UTs are ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on the change in their performance between the reference year and base year (2015-16).
“Most States and UTs perform better on Outcomes than on Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes, but there is variation within these categories in terms of specific areas of strength and weakness. It is, therefore, important for States and UTs to strengthen their capacity to address their specific areas for improvement,” the report noted.