NEW DELHI: 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 today, 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 goal of universalisation of primary education in such
states may not be realised unless all girls are brought
under the education system.
