School Education Quality Index: NITI Aayog

• 01 Oct 2019

National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has released the first edition of the School Education Quality Index (SEQI).

• SEQI has been developed by NITI Aayog to evaluate the performance of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector.
• Developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders such as the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), the World Bank and sector experts, the index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.

School Education Quality Index

• Composition:
  
  • SEQI is based on a set of indicators that measure the overall effectiveness, quality and efficiency of the Indian school education system.

• Aim:
  
  • To drive policy reforms that will improve the quality of school education.
  • To institutionalise a focus on enhancing education outcomes by driving improvements in learning levels, access, equity, infrastructure and governance processes.
• Ranking Process:
  
  • To facilitate like-to-like comparisons, States and UTs have been grouped as Large States, Small States and Union Territories.
    
    • 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 were ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on the change in their performance between the reference year and base year (2015-16).
• Performance of the States:
  
  • Among 20 large States, Kerala was ranked first for overall performance on the quality of school education while Uttar Pradesh came in last.
    
    • However, Haryana, Assam and Uttar Pradesh showed the most improvement in their performance in 2016-17, in comparison to the base year of 2015-16.
  • Among smaller States, Manipur emerged as the best performer, while Chandigarh topped the list of Union Territories.
    
    • It is to be noted that all seven UTs have shown an improvement in their performance.
  • West Bengal refused to participate in the evaluation process and has not been included in the rankings.
• How the Index will help States?
  
  • The index recognises that school education is a subject on the Concurrent List and that State-level leadership is crucial for improving outcomes in a cost-effective manner.
  • The index will serve as a regular and transparent review of the status of school education quality across the States and UTs.
  • The index encourages States/UTs to improve their scores by showing progress across these aspects.
  • In line with NITI Aayog’s mandate to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism, the index strives to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices across States and UTs.

NITI Aayog

• The National Institution for Transforming India, also called NITI Aayog, was formed via a resolution of the Union Cabinet on 1^st January 2015.
  
  • The Government of India constituted the NITI Aayog to replace the Planning Commission instituted in 1950.
• It is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs.
• While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States.
• The Governing Council of NITI, with the Prime Minister as its Chairman, comprises Chief Ministers of all States and Lt. Governors of Union Territories (UTs).

Source: PIB