Great news for West Bengal, says Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday congratulated all teachers, guardians & members of the Education Department with Bengal securing the top rank among larger states on the 'Foundational Literacy & Numeracy Index'.

"Great news for West Bengal! We have secured the top rank among larger states on the 'Foundational Literacy & Numeracy Index'. I congratulate all teachers, guardians & members of our Education Department for this outstanding achievement!," Banerjee tweeted.

The education sector in Bengal has seen massive development since the Mamata Banerjee government assumed power for the first time in 2011. The number of primary, upper primary as well as secondary and higher secondary schools have gone up since 2011.

In 2010-11, the number of primary schools were 39,603 that had gone up way above 50000, the number of upper primary schools have touched nearly 5,000 from 2,907.

The number of teachers in the primary level has also gone up keeping parity with the increase in the number of schools.

While Bengal topped the chart, Bihar languished at the bottom in the 'large states' category on the 'Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy' — an indicator of literacy among children below 10 years. In the 'small states' category, Kerala grabbed the top spot and Jharkhand was adjudged the worst performer on the index.

There are four categories in which regions have been divided — large states, small states, Union Territories and North-east. The report was prepared by Institute for Competitiveness and released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (each pm) chairman Bibek Debroy recently.

"The top-scoring regions are Kerala (67.95) and West Bengal (58.95) in small and large states, respectively," the EAC-PM said in a statement. Lakshadweep (52.69) and Mizoram (51.64) are top-scoring regions in the Union Territory and North-east state category, respectively. As far as worst performers are concerned, Ladakh has featured at the bottom in the list of UTs while Arunachal Pradesh came last in the North-East category.

The Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy includes five pillars of educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes and governance comprising 41 indicators. "Education leads to positive externalities and the quality of education imparted is important especially during the formative years. The present attainments in literacy and numeracy and the variations among states should be the focus for remedial action," Debroy said during a panel discussion organised during the launch of the index.