As per the School Education Quality Index (SEQI) 2019 which was published by Niti Aayog earlier this week, Arunachal Pradesh which comes under ‘Small States Category’ is at the bottom in terms of Overall Performance Ranking for 2016-17. Findings from the report has once more corroborated the fact that school education scenario in the state is nothing but grim and it’s high time to intensify efforts to get out of this precarious situation.

This index is of great importance since it is an attempt to make an objective reflection of the state of affairs of school education, undoubtedly the vital-most in overall education structure. It is through this, the true strengths and weaknesses come to light, thereby giving way to take corrective paths through necessary policy applications. SEQI, which is a 153-page report has used 2016-17 as reference year and 2015-16 as base year and to facilitate identical comparisons, states and UTs have been grouped as Large, Small and UTs. Several parameters have been taken into account which are education outcome, governance, infrastructure & facilities, enrolment rate, language and mathematics skills, transition rate, drop-out rate, schools with the largest number of toilets for girl children amongst others with two broad categories namely ‘Outcomes’ and ‘Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes’. Based on these indicators, Overall Performance Ranking have been allotted and sadly, Arunachal, which falls under Small State Group is at the last position with 24.6 % and Manipur the topper with 68.8%. Throwing insights into the much talked about aspects of infrastructure & facilities such as availability of computer-aided learning, vocational education and provision of computer laboratories & libraries, the report has shown that there has also been a decline in state. There are several other parameters falling under various sub-categories which point that there are deep deficiencies and barring a few areas of improvement, which are only marginal in nature, the overall picture of the state’s school education scenario is nothing encouraging.

The report as a whole is quite an elaborate one, specifically pointing out the immediate loopholes that need mending and is no doubt a fine initiative and an outcome of a collaborative effort involving the Ministry of HRD, World Bank and sector experts. And the index is actually a representation of as many as 30 critical indicators that assess the delivery of quality education. Although Arunachal’s performance has been poor this time, it should, in no way act as a disrupter of the spirit to make rectifications. Rather, it should be taken as an eye-opener of the harsh realities confronting the state’s school education sector.

With little time left to lament even, Arunachal must start the process of making amends with great earnest right from now.