Chandigarh has made a significant comeback to join Punjab, which has retained its top position, as two of the best-performing states according to the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) report for school education. Kerala and Maharashtra, the top performers from the previous year, now rank among the second-best performing states/UTs in the grading.
NO TOPPER IN OVERALL CATEOGORY
None of the states/UTs managed to secure a position in the top five grades in the overall category, which encompasses various domains such as access, learning outcomes, infrastructure, equity, teachers’ training, and governance processes. Released by the education ministry, the PGI-2021-22 serves as an evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system in India. The revamped PGI, aligned with the National Education Policy, classifies states/UTs into ten grades. The highest achievable grade is Daksh, awarded to states/UTs scoring more than 940 out of 1000 points. The subsequent grades are Utkarsh (881-940), Atti-Uttam (821-880), Uttam (761-820), Prachesta 1 (701-760), Prachesta 2 (641-700), Prachesta 3 (581-640), Akanshi 1 (521-580), Akanshi 2 (461-520), and Akanshi 3 (401-460).
ACCESS AND EQUITY
Among the domains, only the access and equity categories had a state (Delhi) achieving the top grade (Daksh). Punjab, Chandigarh, and Rajasthan emerged as top performers in learning outcomes, a crucial indicator of performance. However, no states/UTs secured the top grade for teacher education and training.
2019-2020
In the 2019-20 index, Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Kerala were the top-ranked states. Kerala, Maharashtra, and Punjab were the best performers during the Covid period (2020-21). In the latest report, Punjab and Chandigarh, although leading the rankings, find themselves in the sixth grade (Prachesta-2), while six states made it to the seventh grade (Prachesta-3). The three poorest performing states/UTs are Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram. The report emphasizes that states/UTs in grade Prachesta-2 still have significant ground to cover to reach the top grade.
THE DISPARITY
With approximately 15 lakh schools, 95 lakh teachers, and nearly 26.5 crore students, the Indian school system showcases the vast scale of the evaluation. The education ministry highlighted the alignment of the index with the new initiatives of NEP-2020, incorporating indicators related to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). PGI 2.0 comprises six domains and 73 indicators, assessing the educational attainment of states/UTs.
The report also emphasizes the disparity among states, stating that the maximum and minimum scores obtained by states/UTs in 2021-22 were 659.01 and 420.64, respectively. The 23.8% deviation indicates that states like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram need to make additional efforts to reach the top tier. This disparity has reduced from 51% in 2017-18, indicating that PGI has played a role in bridging the performance gap among states/UTs over the years.
WHAT IS PERFORMING GRADING INDEX?
The PGI-D structure comprises of total weight age of 600 points across 83 indicators, which are grouped under 6 categories viz., Outcomes, Effective Classroom Transaction, Infrastructure Facilities & Student’s Entitlements, School Safety & Child Protection, Digital Learning and Governance Process. These categories are further divided into 12 domains. They are Learning Outcomes and Quality (LO), Access Outcomes (AO), Teacher Availability and Professional Development Outcomes (TAPDO), Learning Management (LM), Learning Enrichment Activities (LEA), Infrastructure, Facilities, Student Entitlements (IF&SE), School Safety and Child Protection (SS&CP), Digital Learning (DL), Funds convergence and utilization (FCV), Enhancing CRCs Performance (CRCP), Attendance Monitoring Systems (AMS) and School Leadership Development (SLD).
PGI-D grades the districts into ten grades viz., Highest achievable Grade is Daksh, which is for Districts scoring more than 90% of the total points in that category or overall. The lowest grade in PGI-D is called Akanshi-3, which is for scores upto10% of the total points. Ultimate objective of PGI-D is to help the Districts to priorities areas for intervention in school education and thus improve to reach the highest grade.