PERFORMANCE GRADING INDEX

Why in News?:

Ministry of Education (MoE) has released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) combined report for 2020-21 & 2021-22.

What is the PGI-D?:A comprehensive assessment tool devised by the MoE for evaluating the performance of the school education system at the State/UT level.

It assesses district-level performance in school education based on the data collected fromUnified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE +), National Achievement Survey (NAS), 2017

Grades:

The report has 10 grades under which districts are categorized,

Daksh: Highest grade (above 90%)

Utkarsh: 81%-90%

Ati-Uttam: 71%-80%

Uttam: 61%-70%

Prachesta-1: 51%-60%

Prachesta-2: 41%-50%

Prachesta-3: 31%-40%

Akanshi-1: 21% to 30%

Akanshi-2: 11% to 20%

Akanshi-3: Lowest (less than 10%)

Indicators:

It has total weightage of 600 points across 83 indicatorsgrouped under 6 categories viz., Outcomes, Effective Classroom Transaction, Infrastructure Facilities & Student’s Entitlements, School Safety & Child Protection, Digital Learning and Governance Process.

Significance:

To assist state education departments in identifying gaps at the district level and improving performance in a decentralized manner.

By prioritizing areas for intervention, districts can work towards reaching the highest grade and enhancing overall education quality.

Revised Structure: The PGI was revised for the year 2021-22 and renamed as PGI 2.0. The new structure includes 73 indicators grouped into two categories:

Outcomes and Governance Management (GM). Emphasis is given to qualitative assessment, digital initiatives, and teacher education.

Grading System: States and Union Territories are assigned grades based on their points scored across the indicators.

The grades range from Daksh (941-1000) as the highest to Akanshi-3 (401-460) as the lowest.

Findings:

None of the States/UTs achieved the top grades in the latest edition.

Only two states/UTs, namely Punjab and Chandigarh have attained Grade Prachesta -2 (score 641-700).

Andhra Pradesh has secured Grade 8 (Category: Akankshi-1) in PGI 2.0.

Andhra Pradesh has made significant progress in its grades over the years, starting from no grade in 2017-18 to attaining Level II with a score of 901.

India’s Education: Indian Education System is one of the largest in the world with about 14.9 lakh schools, 95 lakh teachers, and nearly 26.5 crore students.