Chandigarh, Punjab are top performers in school education

Chandigarh, Punjab are top performers in school education

New Delhi: Chandigarh and Punjab are top performers in school education – which include indicators like learning outcomes and access – in the Union Education Ministry’s latest Performing Grading Index (PGI) report 2021-22. Both Punjab and Chandigarh have been placed in the sixth grade of the PGI index.

The PGI grades state and UTs in 10 categories. Surprisingly, no state or UT could make it to the top five grades. Chandigarh and Punjab are on the ‘Prachesta -2’ level-l for which a state should score between 641-700 points out of a total of 1,000.

Education Ministry said PGI 2.0 for 2021-22 classified the States and UTs into 10 grades viz., the highest achievable Grade is Daksh, which is for State and UT scoring more than 940 points out of a total of 1,000 points. The lowest grade is Akanshi-3 which is for a score up to 460.

Union Education Ministry said that PGI 2.0 structure comprises of 1,000 points across 73 indicators grouped into two categories, viz, Outcomes, Governance Management (GM). “These categories are further divided into six domains, viz., Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure & Facilities (IF), Equity (E), Governance Process (GP) & Teachers Education and Training (TE&T),” said Education Ministry.

Chandigarh and Punjab are followed by 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.

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 aim of PGI 2.0 is to propel States & UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions that will bring about the much-desired optimal education outcomes covering all dimensions. Indicators of PGI 2.0 have been aligned to policy initiatives, and interventions introduced post-implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for proper tracking of the progress,” said Ministry.