The Ministry of Education has released the Performance Grading Index 2020-21. The Performance Grading Index 2020-21 released by the Ministry of Education's Department of School Education and Literacy is a unique index for evidence-based comprehensive analysis of school education system across state and Union Territories. The prime objective of PGI is to promote evidence-based policy-making and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all.
The PGI structure comprises 1,000 points across 70 indicators grouped into 2 categories -- Outcomes and Governance Management (GM). These categories are further divided into five domains -- Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure and Facilities (IF), Equity (E) and Governance Process (GP).
A total of seven states and Union Territories -- Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh have attained Level 2 (score 901-950) in 2020-21 as compared to none in 2017-18 and 4 in 2019-20.
Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are the new entrants to the highest achieved level of any state so far.
The newly formed Union Territory -- Ladakh has made significant improvement in PGI from Level 8 to Level 4 in 2020-21 and has improved its score by 299 points in 2020-21 as compared to 2019-20 resulting into highest ever improvement in a single year.
As was done in the previous years, an official statement said, PGI 2020-21 classified the states and Union Territories into ten grades -- highest achievable Grade is Level 1, which is for state and Union Territories scoring more than 950 points out of total 1,000 points.
The lowest grade is Level 10 which is for score below 551. The ultimate aim of PGI is to propel states and Union Territories 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 prioritize areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level.
PGI Scores and grades achieved by States/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/Union Territories in a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better and to adopt best practice followed by performers.