Kerala has emerged as India's top performing state in the field of elementary education, according to a new government survey. West Bengal and Bihar languish at the bottom

Kerala tops the first nationwide Educational Development Index (EDI), followed by New Delhi, while West Bengal finds itself in the bottom five along with Bihar that claims the last spot, according to the Human Resources Development Ministry.

The District Information System for Education (DISE), an official survey on the state of elementary education in the country in 2005-06, shows that according to the composite primary and upper primary EDI, Kerala, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh are the top five performing states in India.

The DISE findings were released on April 16 along with district report cards that are routinely brought out by state governments.

The composite list encompasses performance both at the primary and upper primary level.

While Delhi, which stands second in the composite list, tops the countrywide primary education index, Kerala tops the upper primary index. All 35 states and union territories in India are listed.

Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Assam are the five bottom-ranked states. Bihar is last on both indexes.

Among the seven smaller states and union territories, Puducherry fared best; Mizoram outperformed the other six states in the northeastern region.

Compiled by the government think-tank, the National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), the DISE data took access to education, infrastructure, teacher and outcome indicators into account to compute the EDI. The index takes into account 22 variables.

The enrolment of students in Classes I to VIII in 2005-06 is 168.29 million, an increase of 12.28 million over the previous year, according to the DISE data. However, about 180 of the 581 districts report a decline in primary enrolment.

Covering 11,24,033 schools in 35 states and union territories, the survey report shows that the average of all districts has consistently improved in terms of Gender Parity Index (GPI) and girls' share in enrolment. But the share, both in primary and upper primary education, is slightly lower in rural areas.

It says the GPI in primary enrolment is on the lower side 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 into the education system.

In the area of girls' enrolment, government schools have maintained their lead.

The enrolment of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in elementary education has reported a decline, from 20.58% and 10.18% respectively in 2004-05 to 18.64% and 9.02% respectively in 2005-06. But the percentage is in keeping with their present share in the overall population. The enrolment of other backward classes has registered a marginal increase, says the NUEA report.

The retention rate in elementary school has shown a gradual improvement, reaching 71.01% in 2005-06. But it is still too low from the point of view of universal retention in primary classes, says the report. The dropout rate is 9.96%, as against 10.64% in the previous corresponding period.

Tamil Nadu reported the best retention figures at the primary level, with a 100% record. Next in line is Madhya Pradesh (95.5%) followed by Kerala with a retention rate of 95.37%.

The number of repeaters has also registered a drop from 11.83 million in 2005 to 9.9 million in 2006.

Source: www.oneworld.net, April 20, 2007
The Hindu, April 17, 2007
IANS, April 16, 2007