Andhra Pradesh a role model in education infra: Panel
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy inspects facilities to be provided to government schools under Manabadi Nadu-Nedu
(File picture)
Amaravati: Has the state government's emphasis on improving the educational infrastructure right from the primary level has had its impact on the overall educational scene of the State?
Yes, going by the EAC-PM (Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister).
The council in its latest report on State of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in India termed Andhra Pradesh a role model for others in providing access to education.
The report submitted on Thursday was prepared by the Institute for Competitiveness highlights the importance of early education years in the overall development of a child.
Pointing out that access to quality education was the fundamental right of the children, the report said that a child's potential could be impacted by several factors, including socio-economic conditions and psychological factors.
Pointing out that the parameters adopted to analyse the quality education imparted proved that states had different achievement levels, the report opined that even a state like Kerala which has the best performance in the small state category, should learn from Andhra Pradesh,
The evaluation of literacy and numeracy was done based on five pillars of educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes and governance.
AP outperformed Kerala with 38.50 score against Kerala's 36.55 score in this regard.
States have performed particularly worse in the governance pillar because over half of the states have a score that is below the national average, i.e., 28.05, the lowest across all pillars.
These pillar-wise analyses help states assess the state of the budgetary measures and steps needed to improve the state of education and identify existing gaps that obstruct their growth, according to the Advisory Council.
The performance of large states such as Rajasthan (25.67), Gujarat (22.28), and Bihar (18.23) is noticeably below average going by the report.
Dr Bibek Debroy, chairman, EAC-PM, went on to suggest that investment on education would have positive externalities. "The quality of education imparted is important, especially during the formative years. The present attainments in literacy and numeracy and the variations among states should be the focus for remedial action," he added.