Context

India jumped five ranks in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019, as per a report published by The Economist Intelligence Unit.

About:

• Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) is the first comprehensive global index to evaluate inputs to education systems rather than outputs such as test scores.
• This is the third edition of the WEFFI, produced by The Economist Intelligence Unitand commissioned by the Yidan Prize Foundation.
• The index ranks 50 economies, which represent nearly 93% of global GDP and 89% of the world’s population.
• With a focus on young people aged 15-24, it measures three pillarsas a means of readying young people to meet the challenges of work and society in future:
  • education systems--policy approaches
  • teaching conditions
  • broader gauges of societal freedom and openness
• It remains the only major ranking to assess inputs to education systems and stands in contrast to measures like the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, which looks at exam-like outputs.

 Key-findings of the index:

• • India:

• India ranked 35th on the overall index in 2019 with a total score of 53, based on three categories:
  • policy environment: In 2019, India scored 56.3 in policy environment falling from a 61.5 score in 2018.
  • teaching environment: India scored 52.2 in the teaching environment category, increased significantly from 32.2 in 2018.
  • overall socio-economic environment: India scored 50.1 in the socio-economic environment category increased significantly from 33.3 in 2018
• The country ranked 40th with an overall score of 41.2 across categories in 2018.

• • Global findings:

• The index is topped by Finland. Finland was first in previous year’s ranking as well, 
• Sweden and New Zealand ranked second and third, with Sweden advancing two places and New Zealand maintaining its third position from 2018's results.
• The Philippines, Ghana and Mexico all performed strongly among a new income-adjusted ranking due to their ability to channel their more limited resources to implement strong policy and advance a future skills agenda.
• Among the world’s largest economies, the US, UK, France and Russia all fell back in the index, while China, India and Indonesia took steps forward.