India’s NITI (National Institution of Transforming India) Aayog has been working tremendously since its establishment on two main things-business and education.
This year, NITI announced SEQI (School Education Quality Index), which ranks different states and union territories (UTs) on the basis of the quality of education they provide.
India believes that as EDB (Ease of Doing Business) rankings have taken India from 142nd spot in 2015 to 63rd spot in 2019 in business-related activities, the same can be done for education.
SEQI parameters and guidelines
For far too long, India has been ignoring the basic needs of quality education. Earlier, the quality of education was also undividedly based on the learning but now SEQI has brought some drastic changes to the situation. There are three basic reforms that were laid out by the NITI Aayog for indexing the states-
- Both, the inputs and outputs of the education system will be taken into consideration.
- Every state government has been given out proper instructions that completely explain the success metrics.
- The schools are not to completely focus on academics. but also on other parameters like gender equity, access to education and the infrastructure.
NITI, copying from the model of EDB, has developed a proper road map for SEQI too. The main promoters of quality education are proper allotment and availability of well-qualified teachers, teachers’ training and planning on a school level. NITI has also provided state governments with proper development tools to help the schools make these developments.
There are thousands of schools in the country where the students and the teachers receive their textbooks prescribed by the board just a few weeks before the exams. With SEQI breathing down their necks, the state education ministers will be held responsible for any lapse in the ratings. This would make the system more reliable and promote quality education in the country.
In the coming years, SEQI will also provide a detailed analysis of every state which would let the state’s education ministry know the areas where the state is lacking. NITI aims to make the schools self-dependent and analyze their progress so that proper budget allocation and policies can be made accordingly.
