New Delhi, December 5
Punjab has been ranked among the top 10 Indian states in the just-released school education statistics, improving its position from 13th in 2012 to sixth in 2013.

While Lakshadweep continues to be the best state as far as school education and infrastructure are concerned, the rest of the north Indian states are ranked far behind Punjab. Himachal occupies the 12th slot, one slip from its former rank of 11th.

Except J&K which has improved three positions in two years - from 18th to 15th in the Composite Education Index released on Thursday by NUEPA (National University for Education Planning) and the HRD Ministry, all other northern states have plummeted in the rankings.

Chandigarh has slipped seven places from 10th to 17th in the new list; Haryana has slipped three from 17th to 20th and Uttarakhand one place from 20th to 21st.

Delhi has also performed poorly in the latest performance appraisal of the school education system losing seven ranks from sixth in 2012 to 11th now.

The rankings take into account the following four major indicators of school education - access, teachers, infrastructure and outcome. All 35 states are ranked separately for each of the four indicators under Access Index, Teachers Index, Infrastructure and Outcome index.

Punjab has primarily gained on the following fronts - improving its ranking in the infrastructure index from ninth last year to sixth this year; and on the outcome index from 35th to ninth. Punjab’s outstanding performance on the outcome index is important considering this index looks at inclusiveness of school education by measuring the percentage enrollment of SC, ST, Muslim children and also examining the ratio of girls enrolled to boys and dropout rates.