School Education Development Index
Recently released School Education Development Index
(SEDI) 2025-26 has placed Chandigarh and Kerala among the top performers, with
Chandigarh securing the first position and Kerala the second position. Chandigarh
recorded the highest overall score among the States and Union Territories,
highlighting its strong performance in the school education sector.
Key Findings of SEDI 2025-26
¨
Marginal Overall
Improvement: The national average SEDI increased marginally from 0.566 in
2024-25 to 0.568 in 2025-26.
¨
Top Performers:
Chandigarh (0.826) and Kerala (0.798) retained the top two positions, followed
by Puducherry (0.737), Goa (0.713) and Delhi (0.709).
¨
Bottom Performers: Bihar
(0.382), Arunachal Pradesh (0.358) and Meghalaya (0.307) remained the bottom
three, indicating persistent structural disparities.
¨
Participation as the
Weakest Domain: Participation recorded the lowest national average at 0.487,
despite improving from 0.484, reflecting continuing challenges in SC/ST and
gender equity, enrolment and transition rates.
¨
Infrastructure Leads:
Infrastructure recorded the highest national average at 0.748, up from 0.741,
and also the widest interstate spread — from 0.982 in Chandigarh to 0.159 in
Meghalaya.
¨
Later Schooling Stages:
Secondary and Higher Secondary show substantial interstate disparities, with
several States recording considerably lower scores at these stages than at the
elementary levels.
¨
Major Improvers: Mizoram
recorded the largest SEDI gain (+0.052; rank 28→22), followed by West Bengal
(+0.032; 21→17), Meghalaya (+0.039) and Telangana (+0.026; 17→14).
¨
Sharpest Decline:
Uttarakhand recorded the sharpest rank decline, falling from 15th to 19th with
a SEDI decline of 0.019.
Understanding the School Education
Development Index (SEDI)
¨
Developer and Background:
SEDI 2025-26 has been prepared by Prof. Arun C. Mehta, former Head of the EMIS
Department, NIEPA, building on the Educational Development Index (EDI)
developed at NUEPA/NIEPA during 2005-06 to 2014-15.
¨
Purpose: SEDI goes beyond
enrolment statistics to assess whether schools are accessible and functional,
whether children participate and remain in the system, and whether they learn
effectively.
¨
Assessment Framework: The
index covers 36 States/UTs, four school-education levels — Primary, Upper
Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary — and 73 indicators across five
domains: Access, Participation, Retention, Quality and Infrastructure.
¨
Composite Score: The four
school levels are combined using 30%, 25%, 25% and 20% weights for Primary,
Upper Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary respectively, while domain-level
indices are combined using the prescribed domain weights.
¨
Data Sources: UDISE+
2025-26 provides the main data, while NAS 2021 (NCERT) supplies
learning-outcome indicators under the Quality domain.
¨
NEP 2020 Alignment: The
revised framework aligns with the NEP 2020 curricular-stage structure, expands
the earlier EDI framework from two to four school levels and introduces
Retention as a dedicated domain.
What Does SEDI Reveal About India’s
School-Education Challenge?
¨ From Access to
Participation: The relatively low Participation score shows that expanding
school availability alone is insufficient; enrolment, equity and grade-level
transition remain critical challenges.
¨ Infrastructure–Outcome
Gap: Infrastructure has the highest national score, but weaker Participation
and Quality scores suggest that improved physical and ICT infrastructure must
be complemented by stronger participation and learning outcomes.
¨
Secondary Education as a
Bottleneck: The relatively weaker and more uneven performance at Secondary and
Higher Secondary levels points to difficulties in retaining and progressing
students through the later stages of schooling.
¨ Persistent Regional
Disparities: The wide variation across States/UTs — particularly in
Infrastructure and Participation — highlights significant differences in
educational access, equity, retention and quality.
