Vibha Sharma
New Delhi, November 3
Seven states and UTs—Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh—have attained Level II (score 901-950) in 2020-21, according to the Ministry of Education’s report on Performance Grading Index for 2020-21.
Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are the new entrants to highest achieved level of any state so far, stated the report graded performance of states/UTs on a uniform scale.
Overall, seven states and UTs—Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh—attained Level II (score 901-950) in 2020-21 as compared to none in 2017-18 and four in 2019-20.
Punjab at number 3 in the list after Kerala and Maharashtra dropped one point to score 928 points against 929 in 2019-20.
Chandigarh, meanwhile, improved to 927 from last time’s 912.
Himachal Pradesh scored 869 points and Haryana, improving from 862 points, scored 865.
Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are the new entrants to the highest achieved level of any state so far.
Newly formed UT Ladakh made “significant improvement in PGI from Level 8 to Level 4” in 2020-21 or improved its score by 299 points in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20 resulting in the highest ever improvement in a single year.
PGI is a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of India’s school education system, one of the largest in the world with about 14.9 lakh schools, 95 lakh teachers, and nearly 26.5 crore students from varied socio-economic backgrounds.
Its prime objective is to promote evidence-based policymaking and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all, officials say. PGI reports are available for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20, and now for 2020-21.
The PGI structure comprises 1,000 points across 70 indicators grouped into 2 categories—Outcomes and Governance Management (GM). These categories are further divided into five domains—Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure and Facilities (IF), Equity (E) and Governance Process (GP).
PGI 2020-21 classified the States/UTs into 10 grades—highest achievable Grade being Level 1for states scoring more than 950 points out of a total of 1000 points.
The lowest grade is Level 10 for a score below 551.
“PGI scores and grades achieved by states/UTs in 2020-21 bear testimony to the efficacy of the PGI system. The indicator-wise PGI score shows the areas where a state needs to improve.
“The PGI will reflect the relative performance of all the states/UTs in a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better and to adopt best practices followed by performers,” officials say.
