The Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy released today the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for States/UTs for 2020-21, a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of school education systems across States/UTs.
“The Indian Education System is one of the largest in the world, with approximately 14.9 lakh schools, 95 lakh teachers, and nearly 26.5 crore students from various socioeconomic backgrounds.” DoSE&L designed PGI for States/UTs to provide insights and data-driven mechanisms on the performance and achievements of school education across all States/UTs.
The PGI structure consists of 1000 points distributed across 70 indicators divided into two categories: outcomes and governance management (GM). These categories are subdivided further 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 ten grades, with Level 1 being the highest achievable grade, which is for a State/UT scoring more than 950 points out of a total of 1000 points.
Level 10 is the lowest grade available for a score of less than 551. The ultimate goal of PGI is to motivate states and UTs to implement multi-pronged interventions that will result in the much-desired optimal education outcomes across all dimensions. The PGI is expected to assist States and UTs in identifying gaps and prioritising areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at all levels, according to the Ministry.
“A total of 7 states and union territories, viz., Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh, have attained Level II (score 901-950) in 2020-21, as compared to none in 2017-18 and four in 2019-20,” the statement added. “Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh are the new entrants to the highest achieved level of any state so far.” The newly formed UT of Ladakh improved its PGI from Level 8 to Level 4 in 2020-21, or improved its score by 299 points in 2020-21 compared to 2019-20, the highest ever improvement in a single year.
“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 States/UTs in a uniform scale, encouraging them to perform better and to adopt best practises followed by performers,” the statement continued.
