What are the findings of the Niti Aayog’s School Education Quality Index?

The think tank Niti Aayog has released the School Education Quality Index. The Index assesses States on the basis of learning outcomes, access, equity and infrastructure and facilities, using survey data, self-reported data from States and third-party verification.

Findings of the Index

• There are huge differences in the quality of school education across the country.
• Among 20 large States, Kerala was the best performer with a score of 0.766 and the state of Uttar Pradesh came in last with a score of 0.364%.
• Among smaller States, Manipur was as the best performer and Chandigarh topped the list of Union Territories.
• Among 20 large States Tamil Nadu topped in access and equity outcomes, Karnataka led in learning outcomes and Haryana had the best infrastructure and facilities.
• Among big states, others with dismal performance are Jammu and Kashmir (0.411), Punjab (0.411), Bihar (0.420) and Jharkhand (0.439), ranked at 19th, 18th, 17th and 16th place respectively.
• Among smaller states, Manipur was followed by Tripura (0.645) and Goa (0.584). Arunachal Pradesh (0.246) the worst-performing state in the category.
• Among Union Territories, Chandigarh (0.829) was followed by Dadra and Nagar Haveli (0.586) and Delhi (0.490). Lakshadweep was the worst-performing UT with a score of 0.319.

The index is aimed at assessing the quality of school education in states and Union Territories. The SEQI is based on 30 indicators grouped into two broad categories – ‘outcome’ and ‘governance processes aiding outcomes’.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development had released Performance Grading Index (PGI) earlier this year. The SEQI is a subset of PGI. The main difference between the two indices is that SEQI accords a higher emphasis on learning outcome, on the other hand, PGI accords a higher weightage to input and infrastructure.