Kerala, Maharashtra, AP among best performers in education ministry's Performance Grading Index

NEW DELHI: Six states and one Union territory have attained the best rating of Level 2 (L2) in the Union education ministry's Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2020-21, a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of the school education system.

No state, however, has been able to attain the highest level of L1 so far. The seven states/UTs which have received L2 are Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are the new entrants to L2 level.

The newly formed UT, Ladakh has 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 highest ever improvement in a single year. The PGI structure comprises of 1,000 points across 70 indicators grouped into two categories namely, Outcomes, Governance Management (GM).

These categories are further divided into five domains -- Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure & Facilities (IF), Equity (E) and Governance Process (GP). As was done in the previous years, PGI 2020-21 classified the states and UTs into 10 grades with the highest achievable grade being Level 1, which is for the state or UTs scoring more than 950 points out of the total of 1,000 points.

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The lowest grade is Level 10 which is for score below 551. The ultimate aim of PGI is to propel states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions that will bring about the much-desired optimal education outcomes covering all dimensions.

The PGI is expected to help states and UTs to pinpoint the gaps and accordingly prioritise areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level. "PGI scores and grades achieved by states and UTs in 2020-21 bear a 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 and UTs in a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better and to adopt best practice followed by performers," a senior Ministry of Education (MoE) official said. The ministry's Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) had devised PGI for states and UTs to provide insights and data driven mechanism on the performance and achievements of school education.

The prime objective of PGI is to promote evidence-based policy making and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all. So far, DoSE&L has released PGI report for the year 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. The present report is for the year 2020-21.