By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, May 27: The state government on Wednesday attributed Meghalaya’s poor performance in the national Performance Grading Index (PGI) to long-standing structural and administrative challenges in the education sector.
The government is hopeful that reforms initiated over the past few years would gradually improve the state’s rankings.
Briefing reporters, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said education remained a “complicated and sticky” subject. He said multiple factors contributed to Meghalaya being placed at the bottom of the latest PGI 2.0 assessment released by the Ministry of Education.
The report placed Meghalaya as the lowest-performing state in the country with a score of 417.9 out of 1,000, relegating it to the 10th and lowest grade category.
Though the state’s score improved marginally from 401.6 in 2022-23, it remained behind other low-ranking states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Bihar.
Sangma said one of the key factors affecting Meghalaya’s performance was the structure of the school system, where multiple schools often functioned within the same building but were registered separately with different Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) numbers.
According to him, each school was assessed independently under the PGI framework which adversely impacted the state’s average performance.
The Chief Minister said the government had already made several interventions to address weaknesses in the education sector, including the introduction of structured pay for teachers. He maintained that such reforms were specifically aimed at improving educational outcomes and strengthening Meghalaya’s future PGI performance.
Sangma said the state had started witnessing improvements in certain indicators, particularly in reducing dropout rates, which had fallen to around six per cent – below the national average.
He stated that Meghalaya’s dropout rate had earlier been affected by poor SSLC pass percentages, as students, who failed in the Class 10 examinations, were unable to pursue higher secondary education.
Stating that reforms in education take time to show results, Sangma said the government expected visible improvements in the 2025-26 PGI assessment, likely to be released in June or July.
He said decisions taken in sectors involving human development often required several years before their full impact became evident, adding that the state government had been for the past four years consistently working on reforms.
The Chief Minister also said that the structured pay initiative for teachers involved an additional expenditure of around Rs 250 crore, but added that the government considered the move necessary for long-term improvement in the education system.
On his recent meeting with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Sangma said discussions largely centred around Meghalaya’s PGI rankings and the steps being taken by the state government to improve educational outcomes.
He said issues concerning language in the CBSE curriculum, North-Eastern Hill University and technical education in the state were also discussed. He further stated that the Ministry of Education would soon send a team to Meghalaya to review the reforms initiated by the state government and explore ways in which the Centre could further assist the state in improving its education sector.
