Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank approved the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019-20 for states and Union Territories (UTs) in which Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Kerala got the highest grade (A++).
Five states and Union territories scored more than 90% for the first time and reached Level-2 or Grade I++ in the performance grading index (PGI) for 2019-20, the ministry said on Sunday.
Punjab has scored the maximum points for governance and management; Bihar and Meghalaya have scored the lowest in terms of infrastructure and facilities.
The Government has introduced the Performance Grading Index with a set of 70 parameters to catalyse transformational change in the field of school education. The PGI for States and Union Territories was first published in 2019 with reference year 2017-18. The PGI helps the States/UTs to pinpoint the gaps and accordingly prioritise areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level.
“I’m happy to share that 19 states and UTs have shown improvement by 10% (36 points) or more in PGI domain of governance process. Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal improved by at least 20%,” said the minister.
“While it is common knowledge that shortage of teachers, principals and administrative staff, lack of regular supervision and inspection, inadequate training of the teachers, timely availability of finances (all of which are captured in the governance and management domain) are some of the factors plaguing the education system in the country, it is for the first time that there is a reliable tool that corroborates this,” the report said.
“The difference between the maximum and minimum PGI scores is more than 380 points in yr 2019-20. The main purpose of PGI is to make all the States and UTs aware of the areas where there is scope for improvement. We aim to have all the States and UTs at the highest,” Pokhriyal added.
