While Chandigarh and Punjab were the top performers in school education for the year 2021-22, none of the States or Union Territories were able to achieve the highest grade — Daksh — in the annual survey released by the Union government.
The Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Performance Grading Index (PGI) released on Friday had 10 grades — with Daksh being the top (scoring above 940 out of 1,000 points) and Akanshi-3 at the bottom (up to 460 points). None of the States managed to achieve the top five grades in the rankings.
Chandigarh and Punjab, despite being top-ranked among the States, could only secure the sixth-highest grade of Prachesta-2, closely followed by Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu at Prachesta-3.
Thirteen States including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh have been categorised as Akankshi-1 States, where room for improvement is substantial.
Further down (Akankshi-1) are 12 States including northeastern States of Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam as well as Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh.
Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram have been grouped under Akankshi-3.
Since 2017-18, MoE has released five annual reports that provide insights on status of school education in States and UTs. The key domains are learning outcomes and quality, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity, and governance processes of schools based on five parameters.
The first parameter relates to ‘learning outcomes’, that is how children do in language, math, science, social science, etc. The second is ‘access to education’ which includes Net Enrolment Ratio (NER), retention, transition from primary to upper primary level and secondary, and mainstreaming of out of school children. The third parameter, ‘infrastructure’, encompasses availability of science labs, computer labs, book banks, vocational education subject, supply of mid-day meal, functional drinking water facility, availability of uniforms, free textbooks, etc.
The fourth parameter, ‘equity’, considers student performances between minorities, Scheduled Castes, Tribes, and those of general category. It also relates to whether schools have ramps, disabled-friendly toilets etc. The last parameter, ‘educational governance and management’, includes digital capture of daily attendance, percentage of single-teacher primary schools, vacancies in educational posts, inspections, teacher evaluation and so on.
Based on their scores, States can take domain-wise action to improve their score in future, the report states.
The 10 grades under which States have been classified are: Daksh (score above 940 out of 1000 points); Utkarsh (881-940); Atti-Uttam (821-880); Uttam (761-820); Prachesta 1 (701-760); Prachesta 2 (641-700); Prachesta 3 (581-640); Akanshi 1 (521-580); Akanshi 2 (461-520); Akanshi 3 (401-460).
Published - July 08, 2023 09:46 pm IST
