State third in NE in Foundational Literacy Index
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, December 18 2021: Manipur has been ranked third among the northeast states in the Foundational Literacy Index 2021 in the report on the 'Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy' released by the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister recently.

The report on the literacy rate in India is an indicator of literacy among children below the age of 10 years in Indian states that are further divided into different categories.

The report on the 'Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy' has been prepared by the 'Institute for Competitiveness' and released by the ECA to PM.

Under Foundational Literacy Index, regions have been divided into four categories - large states, small states, Northeast and Union Territories' .

In the large states category', West Bengal tops the chart with 59 points while Bihar is at the bottom with 37 points, while Kerala is in the top spot in the 'small states category' with 68 points.

Lakshadweep (52.69) and Mizoram (51.64) were the top-scoring regions in the Union Territory and Northeast state category, respectively.

Sikkim scored 51.14 points and Manipur 50.95 points whereas scores for the remaining northeast states are Assam (46.55), Nagaland (42.27), Meghalaya (41.37), Tripura (37.18) and Arunachal Pradesh (36.88) .

The index includes five pillars comprising 41 indicators.

The five pillars are- educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes and governance.

States have performed particularly worse in governance, the report noted.

"More than 50 per cent of the states have scored below the national average (28.05), the lowest across all pillars," it said.

The UTs of Delhi, Chandigarh and Daman & Diu performed well in educational infrastructure, with scores of 92.98,92.97 and 91.24 respectively.

While highlighting the significance of literacy in the early stages of life, the government noted that education leads to positive externalities and the quality of education that is imparted during the formative years is particularly significant.

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