SHILLONG, Nov 3: Meghalaya has made a small improvement in the latest Performance Grade Index (2020-21) of the Union Ministry of Education. Ranked at the bottom of the state list last year, Meghalaya has been ranked the second-lowest among the states and Union Territories in the latest rankings.
This year the worst performer is Arunachal Pradesh, while Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab have topped the PGI that assesses school education at the district level.
Arunachal Pradesh, with 669 points, achieved the L7 level, the lowest in the index while Manipur, Nagaland and Uttarakhand joined Meghalaya at the L6 level with scores between 701 and 750 points.
Meghalaya improved its points from 649 last year to 716 this year. Assam (848 points), Tripura (834), Mizoram (765), Sikkim (751), Manipur (741) and Nagaland (728), fared better than Meghalaya in the rankings.
The biggest improvement was in Ladakh’s performance. From the lowest of 545 points in 2019-20, the union territory improved to secure a level 4 ranking with 844 points. It is the 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, while the lowest grade is Level 10 which is for score below 551.
None of the states/UTs secured the top grade (L1). Besides, Kerala, Maharashtra and Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat have made it to the L2 level achieving scores between 901 and 950 points. Kerala, Punjab and Maharashtra have scored the highest 928 points.
Chandigarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh scored 927, 903, 903, and 902 points, respectively.
Delhi, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu achieved L3 level with scores between 851 and 900.
Besides Ladakh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Tripura achieved L4 level (801 to 850 points).
Bihar, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Telangana made it to level 5.
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.
The exercise, which is the first of its kind at such a scale, envisages that the Index will propel the states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions that will bring about the much-desired optimal education outcomes.
The purpose of the PGI therefore is to help the 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. At the same time it will also act as a good source of information for best practices followed by states and UTs which can be shared.
The evaluation will grade the states and UTs, as opposed to ranking. Grading, by allowing several states and UTs to be considered at the same level, eliminates the phenomenon of one improving only at the cost of others, thereby casting a stigma of underperformance on the latter. (With PTI inputs)
