Odisha registers 6-point jump to rank 7th in Niti Aayog's School Education Quality Index

Odisha has ranked seventh in the Niti Aayog's School Education Quality Index, registering a significant improvement with a six-point jump in the index compared to last year.

According to the index, whose base year has been set as 2015-16 and reference year set as 2016-17, Odisha recorded impressive incremental performance, from an overall 47.8 per cent score in 2015-16 to 60.2 per cent score in the following year.

"Odisha catapults to 7th position by NITI Aayog in its report on School Education Quality Index in 2016-17 among big states. At 13th position among states in the base year 2015-16, the state made a gain of 6 points to reach at 7th for the reference year 2016-17," a statement by the Chief Minister's office read.

The statement noted that the state recorded an impressive gain in its score in the category of government processing gain outcomes, with a rise from 43.4 per cent score to 61.9 per cent score.

The Governance Processing Aiding Outcomes consider factors covering Student-teacher attendance, administrative adequacy, training, accountability, and transparency.

The index, which evaluates states and union territories' performance in the school education based on 30 indicators, was topped by Kerala, with 76.6 per cent score.

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 SEQI assesses states on the basis of learning, access and equity outcomes, infrastructure and facilities.

The index aims to bring an 'outcomes' focus on the education policy by providing states and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.

Kerala has emerged on top among 20 large states in terms of quality of school education, followed by Rajasthan and Karnataka, while the most-populous Uttar Pradesh was ranked at the bottom position during 2016-17.

Five small states have shown an improvement in their overall performance score between 2015-16 and 2016-17, with the average improvement being around nine percentage points.

All seven UTs have shown an improvement in their overall performance scores.

"With this index, the government identifies the strength and weakness in school education and takes required correction measures like policy interventions to rectify them," a press release said.

It further said: "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 first edition of SEQI was released by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar in the presence in presence of representatives from the World Bank here on Monday.