SYLLABUS

GS-2: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources. 

Context: Chandigarh and Kerala have retained the top two positions in the recently released School Education Development Index (SEDI) 2025-26, with Chandigarh recording the highest overall score among States and Union Territories. 

Key Findings of SEDI 2025-26

• Marginal Overall Improvement: The national average SEDI increased marginally from 0.566 in 2024-25 to 0.568 in 2025-26. 

• Top Performers: Chandigarh (0.826) and Kerala (0.798) retained the top two positions, followed by Puducherry (0.737), Goa (0.713) and Delhi (0.709). 

• Bottom Performers: Bihar (0.382), Arunachal Pradesh (0.358) and Meghalaya (0.307) remained the bottom three, indicating persistent structural disparities. 

• Participation as the Weakest Domain: Participation recorded the lowest national average at 0.487, despite improving from 0.484, reflecting continuing challenges in SC/ST and gender equity, enrolment and transition rates. 

• Infrastructure Leads: Infrastructure recorded the highest national average at 0.748, up from 0.741, and also the widest interstate spread — from 0.982 in Chandigarh to 0.159 in Meghalaya. 

• Later Schooling Stages: Secondary and Higher Secondary show substantial interstate disparities, with several States recording considerably lower scores at these stages than at the elementary levels. 

• Major Improvers: Mizoram recorded the largest SEDI gain (+0.052; rank 28→22), followed by West Bengal (+0.032; 21→17), Meghalaya (+0.039) and Telangana (+0.026; 17→14). 

• Sharpest Decline: Uttarakhand recorded the sharpest rank decline, falling from 15th to 19th with a SEDI decline of 0.019. 

Understanding the School Education Development Index (SEDI)

• Developer and Background: SEDI 2025-26 has been prepared by Prof. Arun C. Mehta, former Head of the EMIS Department, NIEPA, building on the Educational Development Index (EDI) developed at NUEPA/NIEPA during 2005-06 to 2014-15. 

• Purpose: SEDI goes beyond enrolment statistics to assess whether schools are accessible and functional, whether children participate and remain in the system, and whether they learn effectively. 

• Assessment Framework: The index covers 36 States/UTs, four school-education levels — Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary — and 73 indicators across five domains: Access, Participation, Retention, Quality and Infrastructure. 

• Composite Score: The four school levels are combined using 30%, 25%, 25% and 20% weights for Primary, Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary respectively, while domain-level indices are combined using the prescribed domain weights. 

• Data Sources: UDISE+ 2025-26 provides the main data, while NAS 2021 (NCERT) supplies learning-outcome indicators under the Quality domain. 

• NEP 2020 Alignment: The revised framework aligns with the NEP 2020 curricular-stage structure, expands the earlier EDI framework from two to four school levels and introduces Retention as a dedicated domain. 

What Does SEDI Reveal About India’s School-Education Challenge?

• From Access to Participation: The relatively low Participation score shows that expanding school availability alone is insufficient; enrolment, equity and grade-level transition remain critical challenges. 

• Infrastructure–Outcome Gap: Infrastructure has the highest national score, but weaker Participation and Quality scores suggest that improved physical and ICT infrastructure must be complemented by stronger participation and learning outcomes. 

• Secondary Education as a Bottleneck: The relatively weaker and more uneven performance at Secondary and Higher Secondary levels points to difficulties in retaining and progressing students through the later stages of schooling. 

• Persistent Regional Disparities: The wide variation across States/UTs — particularly in Infrastructure and Participation — highlights significant differences in educational access, equity, retention and quality. 

Way Forward

• Strengthen Participation and Retention: Target enrolment, grade-level transitions and dropout prevention, particularly at Secondary and Higher Secondary stages. 

• Shift from Inputs to Outcomes: Complement infrastructure expansion with greater emphasis on learning outcomes, classroom processes and effective utilisation of facilities. 

• Adopt State-Specific Strategies: Use domain- and level-wise SEDI results to identify State/UT-specific bottlenecks and design targeted interventions rather than uniform solutions. 

• Ensure Convergence: Align interventions under Samagra Shiksha and other school-education initiatives to address the interconnected challenges of access, participation, retention, quality and infrastructure.