Kerala tops list, UP ranks lowest; J'khand index better than Bihar

New Delhi: In a major achievement, Kerala has bagged the top spot with 76.6 per cent in the Niti Aayog's first School Education Quality Index (SEQI), which was released on Monday.

The index that was developed to evaluate the performance of states and UTs in the school education sector showed a huge disparity in the performance of the states in school education across the country.

Rajasthan has bagged the second position among the large states with 72 per cent followed by Karnataka with 70 per cent and Andhra Pradesh with 69 per cent respectively.

In a major setback, Uttar Pradesh has stood at the lowest rank with 36.4 per cent in the School Education Quality Index for 2016-17. As per the SEQI, Manipur with 68.8 per cent has emerged as the top performer in the category of small states, while Arunachal Pradesh with 24.6 per cent came last in the category.

The overall performance of the states was measured using two parameters- outcomes and governance process aiding outcomes. Scores of the outcomes category were primarily driven by learning outcomes. On the other hand, governance process aiding outcomes category included indicators such as student and teacher attendance system, transparency in teacher recruitment to name a few.

The data for the index was collected for three categories — large states, small states and Union Territories (UTs). Among UTs, Chandigarh is at the top with 82.9 per cent score, while Lakshadweep ranked lowest with 31.9 per cent score.

While releasing the index, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, "The objective of the index is to bring outcomes focus to education policy by providing states and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections and policy interventions."

The performance of Bihar in school education is not much better than its neighbouring state Uttar Pradesh as the former has scored just a few more points and ranked about it, while the state which is led by CM Nitish Kumar is ranked lower than Jharkhand. Notably, West Bengal had not participated in the Niti Aayog exercise.