Guwahati, March 1: A recently released report on elementary school education has revealed that most states of the Northeast have not given attention to setting up toilets in schools, at a time the Centre is giving emphasis on the Swachh Bharat Mission.
The report has revealed that in most states in the Northeast the percentage of schools having toilets is far less than the national average, indicating an urgent need to take up steps in this regard.
Assam cuts a sorry figure in the report.
The report - Elementary Education in India, Where do We Stand - has been published by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, on behalf of the department of school education and literacy, ministry of human resource development, and is based on data provided by the respective states.
The report is an outcome of the ministry's effort to strengthen the educational management information system.
In the light of the recommendations of experts on creation of a unified system of data collection for school education statistics, the ministry made the effort to create a unified school data collection system for the first time in 2012-13, covering elementary and secondary schools.
The report shows that on some fronts like providing electricity and computers in schools, Assam has a long way to go. Only in 15.9 per cent schools in Assam, from primary to secondary level, there is electricity.
The percentage of primary schools having electricity connection is only 8.4. The percentage for Arunachal Pradesh is 32.7, Nagaland 35.3, Manipur 26.9, Mizoram 59.2, Meghalaya 18.9, Tripura 23.4, Sikkim 64.7 and India 51.7.
According to the report, the percentage of single classroom schools in Assam (from primary to secondary level) is 19.2, single teacher schools 8, schools with playground 50.7, schools with boundary walls 26.4, schools with drinking water facility 79.7, schools provided with midday meal 95.2, schools with kitchen shed 72.6, average pupil teacher ratio 20 and average teacher per school 4.5.
Analysing the data, the educational development index (EDI) was calculated, as it plays a significant role in assessing progress and deciding the course of investment on elementary education.
The EDI revealed that Sikkim outperformed other states in the Northeast in primary and composite primary and upper primary levels of education.
Arunachal Pradesh ranked the lowest, along with Bihar and Jharkhand in terms of EDI among 21 major states of the country while Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat ranks among the top five states, along with Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
