Manipur ranked first among small states in overall performance report of NITI, SEQI

Our Correspondent Imphal, Oct. 2 (EMN): Manipur was ranked 1st amongst the smaller states of the country in the Overall Performance (2016-17) report of National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog School Education Quality Index (SEQI), 2019. Manipur had 68.76 points as against Arunachal with 24.64 points. The eight small states include all the Northeast states with Goa. In the larger states group Kerala ranks 1st with a total evaluation point of 82.2 % and Tamil Nadu in the 2nd rank with 73.4% points. Education Minister Thokchom Radheshyam made the announcement during a press conference at the conference hall of Directorate of Education (S) in Imphal on Wednesday. Congratulating every stake holders, he said the state’s performance is possible because of the efforts of people from all sections of the society. Informing that various initiatives are being taken up for the improvement of the school education in the state under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) funding (INR 400 crore), he said the central assistance will facilitate in developing existing infrastructure and introduction of smart classes etc. Despite the limited facilities, he said the department is trying to do the best and many plans are in the pipeline to bring improvement in the education sector. By and larger the enrolment of the students in the government schools in the state has been on the rise in the last two years, the minister added. This can be seen in the schools at Heirok and Leimapokpam.The students are also willing to come to school. NITI Aayog and the Department of School Education and literacy (DoSEL) in the MHRD are jointly developing frameworks for assessing the performance of school education in all the states and Union Territories through indices known as the SEQI that aims to identify the areas of deficiency in each state’s school education system so that targeted interventions can be made at every level from pedagogy to teacher training and Performance Grading Index.