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Chandigarh and Punjab emerged as the best performers in school education across indicators such as learning outcomes, equity and infrastructure in the Union Ministry of Education’s Performing Grade Index (PGI) for the year 2021-22 report released Friday.
Punjab and Chandigarh have been placed in the sixth grade of the index. The PGI grades states and UTs in 10 categories. No state or UT could make it to the top five grades. Chandigarh and Punjab are on ‘Prachesta -2’ level for which a state should score between 641-700 out of total 1,000 points.
Following them, there are six states and UTs at the level below. Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu have been placed at the 7th level — Prachesta-3 — with a score between 581-640 points. Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram are placed at the bottom of the pile with a score between 401-460 (Akanshi–3) .
Last year, the top-performing states—Kerala, Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh—had scored between 901 and 950 points out of 1,000.
The government attributed the drop in scores to a change in the assessment parameters. This year, the ministry reassigned weightage to the existing parameters and introduced a new one, acknowledging that the PGI assessment was “heavily tilted towards indicators related to governance processes rather than the quality indicator.”
Hence, for the ‘Learning Outcomes and Quality’ indicator, the ministry has assigned 240 points, compared to 180 last year, and for infrastructure, 190 points, up from 150 last year. Emphasis on the equity criterion has increased from 230 to 260 points. To accommodate the increased importance of these three parameters, the government has reduced the emphasis on governance processes from 360 to 130 points. Additionally, a new parameter of teacher training (with a weightage of 100 points) has been introduced this year.
“The new PGI structure covers 73 indicators, with more focus on qualitative assessment, including digital initiatives and teacher education. The grades/levels obtained by States/UTs in the previous edition of the PGIs are thus not comparable to the grades/levels obtained in this new edition,” the ministry said on Friday.
“The maximum and minimum scores obtained by the States/UTs in 2021-22 are 659.01 and 420.64, respectively,” the ministry said.
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