Arunachal Pradesh, the lowest ranked state in India at the Performance Grading Index 2020-2021.

Arunachal Pradesh stands at the lowest grade in the recently released report on Performance Grading Index for States/UTs for the year 2020-21.

The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education released on November 3, the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for States/UTs for the year 2020-21, a unique index for evidence based comprehensive analysis of the school education system across State and Union Territories.

In the report, the state of Arunachal Pradesh stands at the lowest of the grading system at Level 7, Grade IV (score 651-700) while Assam and Tripura stand at Level 4, Grade I (score 801-850) making them the top most among the Northeastern states.

Other Northeastern states such as Mizoram and Sikkim stand at Level 5, Grade II (score751-800) whereas Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland at Level 6, Grade III (score 701- 750).

According to the Ministry of Education, "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."

The prime objective of PGI is to promote evidence-based policy making and highlight course correction to ensure quality education for all.

The PGI structure comprises 1,000 points across 70 indicators grouped into 2 categories -- Outcomes and Governance Management (GM). These categories are further divided into five domains -- Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure and Facilities (IF), Equity (E) and Governance Process (GP).

"A total of 7 states and Union Territories i.e., Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh have attained Level 2 (score 901-950) in 2020-21 as compared to none in 2017-18 and 4 in 2019-20," the release stated.

"PGI Scores and grades achieved by States/UTs in 2020-21 bear testimony to the efficacy of the PGI system. The indicator-wise PGI score shows the areas where a state needs to improve. The PGI will reflect the relative performance of all the States/UTs in a uniform scale which encourages them to perform better and to adopt best practice followed by performers," added the statement.

(Source-Minsitry of Education.)