Chandigarh made a comeback to join Punjab, which retained its top position, to be among the best performing states in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) report for school Education. Last years’ top performing states – Kerala and Maharashtra-are among the second best performing states/ UTs in the grading.
But none of the states/UTs could achieve the top five grades in the overall category, based on various domains like access, Learning outcomes, , Equity, teachers’ training and Governance processes. The education ministry on Friday released PGI-2021-22, an index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system in India. PGI, revamped in 2021-22 in the wake of National Education Policy, has classified states/UTs into ten grades. The highest achievable grade is Daksh, which is for states/UT scoring more than 940 out of 1000 points. The subsequent grades areUtkarsh(881-940), Atti-Uttam (821-880),Uttam(761-820),Prachesta1 (701-760), Prachesta 2 (641-700), Prachesta 3 (581-640), Akanshi 1 (521-580), Akanshi 2 (461-520) and Akanshi 3 (401-460).
The two domains – access and equity- are the only ones where any state (Delhi) managed the top grade (Daksh). For learning outcomes, one of the key indicators of good performance, the top performers are Punjab, Chandigarh and Rajasthan while no states/ UTs could achieve the top grade for teacher education and training.
In 2019-20, Punjab, Chandigarh,Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala topped the index, while the index during theCovidperiod (2020-21) recorded Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab as the best performing states.
According to the education ministry, many of the indicators in the index had become redundant and hence were aligned with the new initiatives of NEP-2020 to include those relating to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The six domains in PGI 2.0 have 73 indicators relating to educational attainment of states/ UTs.