PUDUCHERRY: The union territory of Puducherry yet again
leads the country in educational development index (EDI),
reveals the 2009-2010 statistics released by the National
University of Educational Planning and Administration (
NUEPA).
The tiny territory with adequate infrastructure, better
pupil-teacher ratio and gross enrolment ratio has claimed
the numero uno position in elementary education in the
country for the second successive year.
Other regions such as Lakshadweep, Kerala and Andaman and
Nicobar islands closely followed Puducherry while Tamil
Nadu retained its fifth rank in the index.
The EDI index was computed using a set of 21 indicators
which are regrouped as four sub-groups access,
infrastructure, teachers and outcome. The access was
computed based on the availability of schools per 1,000
children and the ratio of primary to upper primary
schools, while infrastructural facilities were gauged by
the student-classroom ratio, schools with drinking water
facility, common toilet and girls toilet.
On the teaching fraternity, the indicators were based on
the percentage of female teachers, pupil-teacher ratio
and the presence of teachers without professional
qualifications.
With regard to outcome index, several criteria including
gross enrolment ratio, gender parity in enrolment,
participation of Scheduled Castes, repetition rate, drop
out rate, transition rate from primary to upper primary
level and percentage of students securing 60 per cent and
above marks were taken into consideration.
Puducherry ranked first in the infrastructure index,
second in teachers index and also in outcome index in
primary level education but lagged behind in access index
as it finished 21st in the list. Similarly, the union
territory ranked first, third and fourth in teachers
index, outcomes index and infrastructure index
respectively in the upper primary level education but was
placed 15th in the access index.
The average number of teachers per school in Puducherry
was the fourth best in the country, next only to
Chandigarh, Delhi and Lakshadweep. Similarly Puducherry
was one of the states that deputes negligible number of
teaching faculty members for non-teaching assignments,
while states like West Bengal, Assam, Goa, Kerala,
Meghalaya, Mizoram, Punjab, Andaman and Nicobar Islands
and Daman and Diu depute one-fifth of their teaching staff
members for non teaching assignments.
Retention rate at primary level was negligible in
Puducherry, Kerala, Delhi and Chandigarh.
Bihar, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh
were languishing at the rock bottom in the EDI table.