Niti Aayog’s School Education Quality Index (SEQI) has put Kerala on the top of its list on the quality of school education in India. Kerala topped the list of large states in India in the Overall Performance and Rank in school education for the year 2016-17 with a total evaluation point of 82.2%. While the state is at an enviable position in most categories, it lags in a few domains, according to SEQI.
In the Governance Processes Aiding Outcomes category — which indicates student and teacher attendance systems — as well as the availability of in-service teacher professional development, school leadership, accountability, transparency in teacher recruitments, and financial discipline, Kerala tops all other states with a score of 79 per cent.
A detailed analysis of the report shows that in certain areas Kerala leads and in some other areas, the state needs improvement. Kerala is one among the lowest in filling up academic positions in academic training institutions in the state.
Kerala scores high on inclusive education
Data shows that Kerala tops in inclusive education, irrespective of gender or caste, and the score is a whopping 95.4 per cent, with an increase of 2 per cent from the previous year.
K Jeevan Babu, IAS, Director of General Education in Kerala, told TNM that the department takes all necessary steps to make sure that students from all categories are included in the public education system. He points out that people close to communities, school teachers and community leaders also help to achieve it.
"Through local support, we make sure that children from all categories irrespective of their social and economic background are included in the system. Once they join the schools, all students are equal," he says.
The proximity of the schools in tribal areas, coastal areas, and other rural areas also helped the department to achieve an inclusive educational system. The officer, however, also suggests the inclusion of ethnic knowledge in the educational system.
Transition and attendance of students
The state scores 100 per cent when it comes to the transition of students from primary to upper primary and then to the secondary classes. Unlike many other states, there is not much difference in the performance of students from urban and rural areas of Kerala. In the higher classes, the difference score is zero.
"Since we follow a no-detention policy till Class 9, the transition rate will be high," Jeevan Babu says.
As far as the average daily attendance of students goes, Kerala was the highest, at 92.1 per cent.
Bringing dropouts into the mainstream
The report shows that Kerala needs to do better in bringing into the mainstream those students who drop out of schools. In 2015- 2016, the state's mainstreaming percentage was 88.3% but in 2016 -2017 it has reduced considerably to 64 per cent, which is an approximate 24 per cent decrease.
"We take necessary measures to curb student drop-outs. In a few tribal areas, we need to work out more on bringing back the students. Apart from a few cases, we were able to spot students who had dropped out and then bring them back to school," the officer says.
In some districts of Kerala, the department had sought Janamaithri police's help to bring drop-outs back to school. In Wayanad, children who dropped out to work in plantations were brought back to the classes with the help of the police.
He also reminds that the language of the tribal community in the state is different from the official language. "We just have Malayalam, English, Hindi and other recognised languages in schools. They have their own language. Somebody who can communicate with them in their language to get better results," he says.
Better infrastructure
Kerala's score on 'Infrastructure and Facilities' decreased by 5.7 per cent as compared to last time. "Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Kerala fell behind due to a decrease in the ‘Percentage of Secondary Schools with Computer Lab Facility’, the report says.
In 2015- 2016, 50.6% of schools had a computer lab facility but by the next academic year, it reduced to 45.1%.
Vocational education
Vocational education in Kerala schools is nil, according to the report. States like Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra provide vocational education in 20% of the schools.
Jeevan Babu says that vocational education at the secondary level is a policy that requires a great amount of preparation before implementation. "It is a policy that the government can take. But it will need a large amount of infrastructure and preparation. At present, we just have vocational education at the higher secondary level," he says.