Context

• There are huge differences in the quality of school education across the country, according to a Niti Aayog ranking released on Monday. Among 20 large States, Kerala was the best performer with a score of 76.6%, while Uttar Pradesh came in last with a score of 36.4%.

About the Index

• School Education Quality Index (SEQI) was developed by NITI Aayog to evaluate the performance of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
• The index 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.
• In line with NITI Aayog’s mandate to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism, SEQI strives to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices across States and UTs. Developed through a collaborative process, including key stakeholders such as Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), the World Bank and sector experts, the index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.
• These indicators are categorized as below:
  • Category 1: Outcomes
    • Domain 1: Learning outcomes
    • Domain 2: Access outcomes
    • Domain 3: Infrastructure and facilities for outcomes
    • Domain 4: Equity outcomes
  • Category 2: Governance processes aiding outcomes
• To facilitate a like-for-like comparison, States and UTs have been grouped as Large States, Small States and UTs. Within each of these groups, the indicator values have been appropriately scaled, normalized and weighted to generate an overall performance score and ranking for each State and UT.
• States and UTs are ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on their annual incremental performance (difference in the overall performance) between the reference year and base year (2015-16).

Importance

• Schooling should result in successful learning outcomes. A credible system of assessment in this regard is crucial to design necessary remedial actions.
• To ensure the system is geared towards learning, SEQI assigns almost half its weight to learning outcomes.
• This sends a strong signal across the nation to ensure the focus remains centred on learning outcomes.
• The rankings present incredible insights on the status of school education across States/UTs and their relative progress over time.

Ranking of States

• Larger States – 1) Kerala 2) Rajasthan 3) Karnataka
• Small States – 1) Manipur, 2) Tripura 3) Goa
• Union Territories – 1) Chandigarh 2) Dadra & Nagar Haveli 3) Puducherry