Educational performance in the Northeastern states

By Reimeingam Marchang

Education is systematically developing in the Northeastern states as the literacy rates have consistently increased across these states following the national pattern in both rural and urban areas over the years as presented in the Table below. Educational development is more prominent as its infrastructure and accessibility are better in urban areas. Nagaland performed in the top in it among these states in rural areas which was followed by Mizoram that performed best in urban areas in the Nineties and at present. Educational performance was strikingly better in Northeastern states when compared to the national level in both rural and urban areas throughout the periods. Except for the state of Arunachal Pradesh in rural areas in the Nineties where the performance of education was noticeably below the national performances, however, it gradually outperformed in the latter period.

Table: Literacy rates in percent

States/India	Year	Rural	Urban
Arunachal Pradesh	2009-10	66.8	85.6
	2004-05	56.2	85.3
	1999-00	46.6	75.6
	1993-94	33.3	71.1
Assam	2009-10	74.7	88.4
	2004-05	69.3	82.1
	1999-00	61.3	80.1
	1993-94	60.1	79.6
Manipur	2009-10	79.1	82.1
	2004-05	73.3	80.3
	1999-00	62.8	79.4
	1993-94	64.0	76.0
Meghalaya	2009-10	87.0	90.0
	2004-05	75.6	88.7
	1999-00	65.4	86.4
	1993-94	53.5	81.9
Mizoram	2009-10	87.3	91.6
	2004-05	87.3	92.6
	1999-00	81.6	87.2
	1993-94	74.2	85.0
Nagaland	2009-10	88.5	89.6
	2004-05	74.8	86.0
	1999-00	73.9	85.2
	1993-94	74.4	81.4
Sikkim	2009-10	83.1	88.5
	2004-05	74.2	82.0
	1999-00	66.2	81.5
	1993-94	60.3	82.0
Tripura	2009-10	75.8	84.8
	2004-05	73.2	81.1
	1999-00	72.6	81.0
	1993-94	67.8	82.4
All India	2009-10	62.1	78.6
	2004-05	54.5	75.1
	1999-00	48.6	72.0
	1993-94	43.5	69.0

Note: Figure may not sum up to 100 due to rounding off.
Source: NSS 50^th Round (1993-94) Report No. 409, 55^th Round (1999-00) Report No. 458, 61^st Round (2004-05) Report No. 515 (1) and 66^th (2009-10) Round Report No.537.