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New Delhi: Kerala continues to enhance its reputation as one of the country’s best performers as far as social indices are concerned, with the southern state topping the list on the education of girls in India, according to data with the Modi government.

A survey titled “Household Social Consumption:Education” and published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) last month, has pegged Kerala as having the highest age specific attendance ratio (ASAR) for women, in both urban and rural areas, starting from the pre-primary level to pre-university education.

ASAR is the percentage of people in that age-group currently attending educational institutions, irrespective of the level or class in which they are studying.

According to UNESCO, a high ratio denotes a high degree of educational participation of the population of the particular age. “Increasing trends can be considered as reflecting improving participation of the particular age.”

The survey has also listed Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana and Tamil Nadu as having high ASARs.

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The survey

At the pre-primary level, in the 3-5 year age group, Kerala posted ASAR of 60 per cent whereas at the pre-university level of class 11 and 12 — in the 14-17 year age group — the state registered an attendance ratio of 99.5 per cent. In both cases, it exceeded the national average ratio of 32.1 per cent and 77.5 per cent respectively.

The report clarified that the attendance covered both formal and non-formal education. “The non-formal education included ‘Non-formal Education Centre’ (NFEC), ‘Total Literacy Campaign’ (TLC), ‘Adult Education Centres’ (AEC) and other non-formal education,” the report said.

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Other top performing states

At the pre-primary level, apart from Kerala, Punjab (57 per cent), Telangana (54 per cent), Tamil Nadu (54 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (53 per cent) and Delhi (50 per cent) were the next best performing states.

At the pre-university level, Himachal Pradesh (94.4 per cent), Uttarakhand (92.7 per cent), Telangana (92.1 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (91.6 per cent) followed Kerala.

Uttar Pradesh was, however, ranked the lowest for both age groups with 22.7 per cent and 64.5 per cent ASAR respectively.

Similar findings by Niti Aayog

In a report released by the government think-tank Niti Aayog on “School Education Quality Index” in October, Kerala ranked as the best-performing among large states, achieving an overall performance score above 60 per cent.

Other top states were Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Assam.

Kerala achieved the highest overall performance score of 76.6 per cent, while Uttar Pradesh finished last with an overall performance score of 36.4 per cent.

Also read: Modi govt likely to slash school education budget by Rs 3,000 crore citing funds crunch

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