Govt launches “Performance Grading Index 2019-20”

What is the news?

Performance Grading Index 2019-20, for States and Union Territories, has been released by the Education ministry.

What is the Performance Grading Index (PGI)?

• Performance Grading Index (PGI) is a tool to provide insights on the status of school education in States and UTs. This includes key levers that drive their performance and critical areas for improvement.
• Released by: Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL), Ministry of Education.
• Parameters: The index is structured in two categories namely: Outcomes and Governance & Management. These categories comprise a set of 70 indicators aggregate with a total weightage of 1000. These indicators are related to:
  • Learning outcomes
  • Access
  • Infrastructure and facilities
  • Equity and
  • Governance and management.
• Data: The index is based on the data drawn from the Unified District Information System for Education, National Achievement Survey (conducted by NCERT in 2017), Mid-Day Meal, Public Financial Management System, and the Shagun portal — all maintained by the department of school education.
• First Released in: The Index was first published in 2019 with the reference year 2017-18.

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Key Findings of the Performance Grading Index 2019-20:

• Punjab scored highest: Punjab has recorded the highest score in the index with a total of 929 out of 1,000. This is a huge improvement from 769 in 2020.
  • Punjab has overtaken Chandigarh which topped in the previous edition but has now dropped to 2^nd place with a score of 912.
• Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have all scored higher than 90% in the Index for 2019-20.
• Gujarat drops from second to 8th place.
• Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh also saw a severe drop in their scores. Thus pushing both States to an overall performance that was worse than in the previous edition of the index.
• The new Union Territory of Ladakh was included separately for the first time in this edition and had the lowest score of just 545.

Significance of this Performance Grading Index:

• Encourage states: The index would encourage states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions leading to optimal education outcomes.
• Identification of gaps: The index will help the states and UTs to pinpoint the gaps. Accordingly, they can prioritize areas for intervention to ensure that the school education system is robust at every level.

Source: The Hindu