Andhra Pradesh didn't top India's educational accessibility ranking

What is the claim?

On January 6, Botcha Satyanarayana, education minister of Andhra Pradesh, shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that the southern Indian state had emerged as the best performer in the country after surpassing Kerala in terms of providing education accessibility. He cited findings of the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy report released by the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) to back his assertions. “AP govt takes great pride in surpassing Kerala, securing the top spot in national education accessibility. With an impressive score of 38.50, AP outperforms Kerala (36.55) in the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy report released by EAC-PM,” he wrote, thanking the YS Jagan-led Andhra Pradesh government. An archived version of his post can be viewed here. 

Soon after the minister’s post, the claim was amplified on X (archive here) by social media users and was also cited by various media houses such as ANI, Republic World, The Times of India, and Mirror Now in their reports.

Screenshots of viral posts amplifying the minister's claim. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the minister has made incorrect claims in his X post.

What did we find?

The EAC-PM first released the Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) Report in December 2021 and then in 2023.  Our research showed that Meghalaya, and not Andhra Pradesh, had emerged as the best performer in providing access to education in the country in both the reports. 

Moreover, while Andhra Pradesh scored better than Kerala in the 2021 report under the ‘Access to Education’ segment, it slipped behind in the 2023 report. 

We checked the 2021 report (that measured the FLN skills over the years 2018-2020) where Andhra Pradesh was listed under the ‘Small States’ category. The state had scored 38.50 in the ‘Access to Education’ segment, and the corresponding score for Kerala, also a ‘Small State,’ was 36.55. While Andhra Pradesh did outperform Kerala in the 2021 report, it did not ‘top’ the country in providing education accessibility. The state of Uttarakhand had secured the top spot under the ‘Small States’ category with a score of 39.94. With a score of 63.44, as seen on page 104 of the report, Meghalaya was the overall best-performing state.

The 2021 'Access to Education' scores of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Meghalaya. (Source: State of FLN in India Report/Modified for clarity)

As per the methodology of the report—published jointly by the EAC-PM and the Institute of Competitiveness, the Indian branch of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School—the states and union territories were ranked based on cumulative scores derived from various segments like educational infrastructure, access to education, basic health, learning outcomes, governance, etc. The data was sourced from findings of the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) reports, and the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) among other official reports. 

In the 2023 report, Andhra Pradesh scored 38.25 in the ‘Access to Education segment’  and failed to surpass Kerala which scored 48.85. The highest overall scorer was again Meghalaya (77.17), as seen on page 155 of the report. 

The 2023 'Access to Education' scores of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Meghalaya.  (Source: State of FLN in India Report/Modified for clarity)

A quick assessment of both FLM reports released by the EAC-PM, hence, reveals that Meghalaya, and not Andhra Pradesh, is the best-performing state in terms of providing access to education. Also, Andhra Pradesh performed better than Kerala in the 2021 report but slipped behind in the 2023 rankings. 

Logically Facts also contacted Andhra Pradesh’s Ministry of Education for clarification on Satyanarayana’s X post. A highly-placed source in the ministry, who did not wish to be identified, confirmed that the information in the post was incorrect, even though it was taken from the EAC-PM report. The source added that they were unaware of the details as well as the existence of the report which could explain the discrepancy in the post shared by the official handle of the education minister.

The verdict

While Andhra Pradesh surpassed Kerala in the ‘Access to Education’ category among ‘Small States’ in 2021, it was not the top-performing state. Similarly, in the latest report released in 2023, Andhra Pradesh had slipped below Kerala. In both these reports, Meghalaya was the top performer. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.