School Education Quality Index - How Is Education Quality Measured?

The SEQI – School Education Quality Index is a metric that is used to measure the quality of education provided in schools of various States and Union Territories in India.

The National Institution of Transforming India – NITI Aayog has released the first edition of School Education Quality Index- SEQI. There is a huge difference in the quality of school education across the country. As per the rankings published by NITI Aayog, Kerala is the best performer with 76.6% while Uttar Pradesh ranked last with 36.4%.

In this article, we will discuss the School Education Quality Index, aim, purpose and significance of SEQI for India. These facts would come in handy while preparing Current Affairs for different competitive exams.

Candidates preparing for various Government exams can get relevant details regarding the same on the linked page.

SEQI – School Education Quality Index

Education is the fundamental right of every child, from the Right to Education to Samagra Shiksha, education has always been a priority area in devising schemes and initiatives.

Those interested to know about the Right to Education can check the linked page.

The Government has also launched several new schemes in higher education to boost research and innovation culture in the country. The public schools and universities are mandated to provide quality education to all. To keep a check on the quality of school education, SEQI is established.

About SEQI

1. SEQI is developed by NITI Aayog to evaluate the performance of States and Union Territories in the school education sector.
2. The School Education Quality Index aims to bring an outcomes focus to education policy by providing States and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.
3. The Index strives to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and best practices across States and UTs that is in line with the NITI Aayog’s mandate to foster the spirit of competitive and cooperative federalism.
4. Developed through a collaborative process including key stakeholders such as MHRD, the World Bank and sector experts.
5. SEQI index consists of 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education.

For more information on NITI Aayog visit the link provided here.

SEQI – Composition

SEQI is based on a set of indicators that measure the overall effectiveness, quality and efficiency of the Indian school education system. The index encourages States and UTs to improve their scores by showing progress across the following aspects.

Category 1- Outcomes (further classified into 4 domains)

1. Learning outcomes
2. Access outcomes
3. Infrastructure and facilities for outcomes
4. Equity outcomes

Category 2- Governance processes aiding outcomes

The domains covered in this category are student and teacher attendance, teacher availability, administrative adequacy, training, accountability and transparency.

School Education Quality Index- Aim & Purpose

1. SEQI aims to drive policy reforms that will improve the quality of school education.
2. It seeks to institutionalise a focus on enhancing education outcomes by driving improvements in learning levels, access, equity, infrastructure and governance processes.

Aspirants preparing for any government exams can visit the link provided to prepare even better for the examination-

• Free Online Quiz for Government Exams
• Government Exams Free Mock Test Series
• Government Exam Previous Year Question Papers with Solution PDFs

SEQI – Ranking Process

The rankings by SEQI present incredible insights on the status of school education across States and UTs and their relative progress over time. The ranking is done in the following manner –

1. To facilitate like-to-like comparisons, States and Union Territories have been grouped as Large States, Small States and UTs.
2. Within each of these groups, the indicator values have been appropriately scaled, normalized and weighted to generate an overall performance score and ranking for each State and UT.
3. States and UTs are ranked on their overall performance in the reference year 2016-17, as well as on the change in their performance between the reference year and base year (2015-16).
4. States’ and UTs’ performance on Learning Outcomes is driven by their results on the National Achievement Survey (NAS).
5. Their performance on access Outcomes is primarily driven by enrolment ratios at the secondary level and transition rates from upper-primary to secondary level.
6. In terms of Infrastructure & Facilities for Outcomes, States and Union Territories performance is strongly linked to the presence of Computer Aided-Learning (CAL) at the elementary level and vocational education at the secondary and senior secondary level.

Ranking of the States as per the School Education Quality Index

• Among 20 large states, Kerala has emerged on top followed by Rajasthan and Karnataka in terms of quality of school education,
• Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state, was ranked lowest during 2016-17.
• 18 out of the 20 large states in the country have improved their overall performance between 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, which is otherwise referred to as the incremental performance in the report.
• The overall performance has declined in Karnataka and Uttarakhand. Performance and ranks have also decreased in Mizoram, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
• All seven union territories have shown an improvement in their overall performance scores.
• Among smaller States, Manipur emerged as the best performer, while Chandigarh topped the list of Union Territories.
• West Bengal refused to participate in the evaluation process and has not been included in the rankings.

Read, State of School Education in India.

Candidates can know in details about the above-mentioned schemes, initiatives and programs associated with education promotion, on the links provided below-

1. New National Education Policy
2. Sustainable Development Goals
3. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
4. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan

SEQI – Significance

1. The index recognises that school education is a subject on the Concurrent List and that State-level leadership is crucial for improving outcomes in a cost-effective manner.
2. SEQI assigns almost half of its weight to learning outcomes to ensure that the education system is geared towards learning.
3. The index will serve as a regular and transparent review of the status of school education quality across the States and UTs. SEQI acts as a credible system of assessment and helps to design necessary remedial actions.
4. It fosters knowledge sharing and facilitates the education institute to deliver quality education.

Other Related Links:

Aspirants of UPSC shall also encounter questions on SEQI in UPSC Prelims as well as the General Studies Paper-I. Candidates preparing for the UPSC exam can check the links given below –

1. IAS 2022
2. UPSC Calendar 2022

You can also check out the preparation strategies for competitive exams to fine-tune your exam prep.