In India, Kerala ranks first and Bihar ranks last in the first composite Education Development Index (EDI), which is prepared to track the progress of States towards providing universal elementary education.
The EDI, which is prepared by the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (http://www.nuepa.org), was released on 16 April, 2007 along with the District Report Cards for the year 2005-06 that are routinely brought out by the District Information System of Education. States, which performed well in terms of education were Kerala, Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. Delhi tops in primary education and Kerala in upper primary education. The survey study which covered 11,24,033 schools across the country, found that the enrolment of students in classes I to VIII in the year 2005-06 showed an increase of 12.28 million over the previous year to 168.29 million. However, 180 of the 581 districts have reported a decline in primary enrolment. Retention rate of students at the primary level is 100 percent in Tamil Nadu, to be followed by Madhya Pradesh (95.50 percent) and Kerala (95.37 per cent). At the all India level, the retention rate has gone up from 58 per cent in 2004 to 71 per cent in 2005. Government schools have recruited more girls than private schools.
