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Latest News |
| 23rd
January 2010 / Times of India / Bangalore Edition |
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PUDUCHERRY TOPS EDUCATION INDEX
Haryana’s Progress Remarkable — From Seventh
To Fourth
New Delhi: It may be just a dot on the map, but it continues
to remain on top in the field of primary education. Like
2007-08, the Union territory of Puducherry maintained
its number one spot in the Educational Development Index
for primary and upper primary schools in the country.
Lakshadweep and Kerala were in the second and third positions,
respectively, in the EDI for 2008-09. Last year, Kerala
was in the second place followed by Lakshadweep.
In 2008-09, Haryana occupies the fourth position. Even
if parameters to evaluate EDI have been changed for the
2008-09 survey, Haryana’s progress is remarkable
— from seventh to fourth.
In the composite ranking of primary and upper primary,
the bottom five places from 31 to 35 are occupied by Meghalaya,
Bihar, Manipur, Jharkhand and Assam, respectively.
The annual EDI, developed by the National University for
Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) after
an analysis of 1.29 million primary and upper primary
schools, shows that different states are on top in case
of different indicators. A set of 21 indicators were re-grouped
into four subgroups of access, infrastructure, teachers
and outcome.
What is heartening is that small progress has been made
in case of computers in schools with 14% having them.
The percentage of such schools is as high as 85.88% in
Chandigarh, 85.84% in Delhi, 79.93% in Kerala and 89.74%
in Lakshadweep compared to only 0.68% in Bihar and 3.59%
in Uttar Pradesh.
The overall statistics also show that the number of schools
imparting elementary education (class I to VIII) has i
n c re a s e d from 8.53 lakh in 2002-03 to 12.85 lakh
in 2008-09. Of the total schools, about 87.3% are located
in rural areas. Jharkhand has opened as many as 16,102
primary schools/sections (class I to V) which is incidentally
the highest among all the 35 states and UTs of the country.
On the other hand, UP opened the highest number of upper
primary schools (class V to VIII). Another heartening
feature of the survey is that 88% of the 1.29 million
elementary schools in the country now have drinking water
facility. All the schools in Chandigarh, Daman and Diu,
Delhi, Lakshadweep and Tamil Nadu have drinking water
facility. About 67% schools in the country had access
to common toilets in 2008-09. And more than 50% of the
1.29 million schools had toilets for girls.
There is also a variation in primary and upper primary
rankings. For instance, Tamil Nadu is at third position
in primary education but 10th in upper primary education.
Kerala is 9th at the primary but third at upper primary
level.
If one goes by the ranking in terms of access at the primary
level — availability of schools per 1000 child population,
ratio of primary to upper primary schools — Arunachal
Pradesh is on top, followed by Meghalaya, J&K and
Mizoram. Bihar is at the 15th place, Uttar Pradesh at
30th and Delhi at 20th place. At the upper primary level,
Mizoram is on top followed by Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
Puducherry is on top in case of infrastructure —
schools with studentclassroom ratio of 40, drinking water,
toilet, girls toilet etc — followed by Andaman &
Nicobar Islands and Punjab. Haryana and Kerala are at
fourth and fifth positions. At the upper primary level
also, Puducherry is number one, A&N Island at second
position and Haryana third.
In case of parameter of teachers — percentage of
female teachers, pupilteacher ratio of more than 40, schools
with less than two teachers etc — Andaman &
Nicobar Island tops at the primary level followed by Kerala
and Chandigarh. At the upper primary level, Chandigarh
occupies the top spot followed by Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
On the parameter of outcomes — Gross Enrolment Ratio,
participation of SCs/STs, gender parity index, repetition
rate, drop-out rate — Tamil Nadu is number one followed
by Puducherry and Kerala.
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