The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education on Thursday released the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for States/UTs for 2020-21. The prime objective of PGI, as stated by the Ministry of Education, is to promote evidence-based policy making and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all.
PGI classifies the States/UTs into ten grades. The highest achievable Grade is Level 1, which is for State/UT scoring more than 950 points out of total of 1000 points and the lowest grade is Level 10 which is for score below 551.
Nagaland got a score of 728 points in the 2020-21 index and has been upgraded to Grade III, an improvement from 2019-2020’s 667 points. In the 2018-2019 report, the state was in Grade V with 621 points.
Accordingly, the PGI is structured in two categories, namely, Outcomes, and Governance & Management, that are further divided into five domains – Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure& Facilities (IF), Equity (E) & Governance Process (GP). There are a total of 70 indicators in aggregate with a total weightage of 1000.
In the Learning Outcomes & Quality, the state scored 126 out of 180. The poor scoring in this domain reflects how the quality of education deteriorates as the students progress to the elementary level.
For instance, in the “Average Mathematics score in Class 3” Nagaland’s government and aided school scores 18 out of 20, in Class 5, the score is 14/20 and in Class 8 the score plummets to 10/20.
In the Access domain, the state scored 55 of 80. This domain includes indicators such as “Adjusted Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) at elementary level as per entry age of the State/UT”, where the state got 8/10, and “Adjusted Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) at secondary level as per entry age of the State/UT” where 5 points was awarded out of 10.
In the Infrastructure & Facilities domain, Nagaland schools scored 117 of 150. The indicators included “Percentage of secondary schools having Integrated Science Lab (Govt. Secondary Schools)” where they scored 3/10, “Percentage of schools having functional drinking water facility – All Schools” 7/10 and 10/10 in “Percentage of Elementary Level students getting Uniform within three months of start of academic year – Govt. Schools”.
Under the domain of Equity, the state did impressively scoring 210 out of 230. Its indicators included “Gross enrolment ratio of CWSN (age group 6 to less than 18 years)” where the state nailed a 10/10.
In “Difference in student performance in Mathematics between Scheduled Tribes (ST) and General Category in Govt. and Aided elementary schools: Class 3”, Nagaland’s schools got 6/6 and in “% of entitled CWSN receiving Aids and Appliances for Govt and Aided schools” 10/10.
Under the Governance Processes, the state scored poorly. It received just 220 points out of 360. In the indicator “% of govt. head-teachers/ principals who have completed Schools Leadership (SL) training in the current financial year (Measured against sanctioned by Central government)” the state got 0/20 and in “% State/ UT budget share spent on school education to total State/ UT budget in current year” a mere 8/20.
The Ministry of Education stated that the 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 from varied socio-economic backgrounds.
It said that the Performance Grading Index (PGI) is done to provide insights and data driven mechanism on the performance and achievements of on the success of school education across all States/UTs.
The ultimate aim of PGI is to propel States & UTs 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, the Ministry said.
None of the states achieved Grade I but a total of 7 States and UTs, namely, Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh have attained Level II. There were just 4 in 2019-20.
