Bhubaneswar: The NITI Aayog today released the School Education Quality Index (SEQI), in which Odisha has registered a significant improvement in the field of school education.

While Odisha was placed at 13th rank in base year 2015-16, it moved up to 7th position in the reference year 2016-17, the report said.

Odisha and four other states-- Haryana, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat-- registered high rates of improvement in their overall performance score between 2015-16 and 2016-17. Odisha is the fourth best state in terms of improvement. The percentage figure increased from 47.8 in 2015-16 to 60.2 in 2016-17 with a 12.4 percent improvement, the report added.

The SEQI was developed to evaluate the performance of States and Union Territories (UTs) in the school education sector. The index aims to bring an outcome focus to education policy by providing States and UTs with a platform to identify their strengths and weaknesses and undertake requisite course corrections or policy interventions.