Foundational Literacy and Numeracy Index

Highlights:

• West Bengal and Kerala were toppers in the large and small states categories respectively, in the 'Index on Foundational Literacy and Numeracy,.
• The index is an indicator of literacy among children below 10 years.
• The report was prepared by 'Institute for Competitiveness' and released by Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chairman Bibek Debroy.
• The categories that were considered for rankings are- large states, small states, Union Territories and North East.
• Among large states, West Bengal bagged top honours with a score of 58.95, while Bihar finished at the bottom with 37.
• Among the small states, Kerala finished on top with 68, while Jharkhand languished at the bottom with 45.
• Lakshadweep (52.69) and Mizoram (51.64) were the top-scoring regions in the Union Territory and Northeast state category, respectively.
• Ladakh has featured at the bottom in the list of UTs, while Arunachal Pradesh came last in the North East category.
• The overall national score was
• 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, i.e. 28.05, the lowest across all pillars.
• The UTs of Delhi, Chandigarh and Daman & Diu performed well in educational infrastucture, with scores of 92.98, 92.97 and 91.24 respectively.