Kerala Tops States In NITI Aayog’s School Education Quality Index, Chandigarh Among Union Territories

The government policy think-tank Niti Aayog on Monday (30 September) launched the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) wherein states, including Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam have been ranked as the best-performing among large states, each achieving an overall performance score above 60 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh figures last in the ranking.

As per the report, Kerala has the highest overall performance score of 76.6 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh came last among the large states, with an overall performance score of 36.4 per cent.

Among 20 large states in the country, 18 have improved their overall performance between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 in what is referred to in the report as "incremental performance".

Haryana, Assam and Uttar Pradesh showed the most improvement in their performance in 2016-17, in comparison to the base year of 2015-16.

The School Education Quality Index assesses states on the basis of learning outcomes, access, equity, infrastructure and facilities, using survey data, self-reported data from states and third-party verification.

Tamil Nadu was the top performer in access and equity outcomes, while Karnataka led in learning outcomes. Haryana had the best infrastructure and facilities.

The index is aimed at evaluating the performance of states and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.

Among the UTs, Chandigarh has the highest overall performance score of 82.9 per cent, while Lakshadweep ranks last, with an overall performance score of 31.9 per cent.

Delhi was reported to have performed better on governance processes aiding the outcomes category.

Among the smaller states category, Manipur emerged as the best performer. West Bengal refused to participate in the evaluation process and has not been included in the rankings.

The school education quality index, developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the World Bank and sector experts, consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.

Present at the launch event were Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant CEO NITI Aayog and Secretary (Higher Education) Rina Ray, among other dignitaries.

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