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Kerala
has emerged as the top performing state while
Bihar finds itself in the last spot in an
official survey on the health of elementary education in the country in
2005-06.
The District Information System for Education (DISE) data, compiled by
government think-tank
National
University for
Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), took access,
infrastructure, teacher and outcome indicators into account to compute the
Educational Development Index (EDI).
Covering 11,24,033 schools in 35 states and Union
Terrotories, the survey report, released here on Monday, shows that
according to composite primary and upper primary EDI, Kerala, Delhi, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh are the top five while Bihar,
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam are the five bottom-ranked
states. Among the seven smaller states and UTs, Puducherry was the best
and Mizoram outperformed the other six states in the north-eastern region.
The enrolment of students in classes I to VIII in 2005-06 was 168.29
million, an increase of 12.28 million from the previous year, according to
the DISE data. However, about 180 of the 581 districts reported decline in
primary enrolment.
The average of all the districts has shown a consistent improvement in
both the gender parity index (GPI) and girls’ share in enrolment, but the
share, both in primary and upper primary, is found to be slightly lower at
rural areas.
It said the GPI in primary enrolment is a little low in states like
Bihar and Rajasthan and the goal of
universalisation of primary education in such states may not be realised
unless all girls are brought under the education system.
The enrolment of SCs and
STs in elementary classes have reported a decline from 20.58 per
cent and 10.18 per cent in 2004-05 to 18.64 per cent and 9.02 per cent in
2005-06, but the percentage is in tune with their present share in
population. The enrolment of OBCs has
registered a marginal increase.
The retention rate in elementary classes has shown gradual improvement,
reaching 71.01 per cent in 2005-06, but is still too low from the goal of
universal retention at the primary classes, the report said. The drop-out
rate was 9.96 per cent as against 10.64 per cent during the previous
corresponding period.
The data would help ascertain how the schools are performing and find out
long-term solution of problems, NUEPA Vice-Chancellor Ved Prakash said at
the function.
Replying to a query on the reliability of the database, he asked the
states to ensure authenticity of the information provided by them and said
checking by independent agencies has been made mandatory. “After the
state-based EDI, we plan to compute district and block-level index,”
Prakash added.
The VC said the research centre, which has been taking out the “District
Report Card” at primary and upper primary level for the last four years,
now plans to upscale the exercise up to secondary level. It would also aim
at creating database on higher and technical education, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, UNICEF education section chief
Sampha Lhalungpa
emphasised the need for doubling the efforts for ensuring education
of the girl child.
NUEPA district report cards 2005-06, analytical tables on elementary
education in rural and urban
India and a study on
student flow at primary level were released at the function.
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