Most of the states from Northeast India, including Assam, have failed to get a place in Grade I of the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019-20 released by the Union education ministry.
Tripura has emerged as the only state from the Northeast which has been able to get a place in the Grade I of the PGI chart.
Among the top states and Union territories, which have topped the list, are Punjab (929), Chandigarh (912), Tamil Nadu (906), Kerala (901), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (901) and Delhi (989).
Tripura, which has scored 801, has been placed in Grade I while Sikkim with 772 and Manipur with 767 have been placed in Grade II of the chart.
While Assam (738) and Mizoram (723) have been placed in Grade III of the PGI list, Meghalaya has been placed in Grade V.
Despite major improvement from its previous year’s performance, Arunachal Pradesh (698) has been placed in Grade IV of the PGI chart.
Nagaland has also been placed in Grade IV of the chart as it could score only 667.
Union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ approved the release of Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2019-20 for states and Union territories of India on Sunday.
The Centre 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 (UTs) was first published in 2019 with reference year 2017-18.
According to the Union education ministry, the PGI : States/UTs for 2019-20 is the third publication in this series.
It is expected that the PGI would propel states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions to bring about the much-desired optimal outcome in school education.
While Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Kerala were able to occupy the highest grade (Grade A++) for 2019-20, most of the states/UTs improved their grade in PGI 2019-20 compared to the previous years.
Three states including Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Andaman & Nicobar Islands have improved their score by 20%, the Union ministry said.
According to the ministry, a total of 13 states and UTs have shown improvement by 10% (15 points) or more in the PGI domain: Infrastructure and Facilities.
In the PGI domain: Equity, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Odisha have shown over 10% improvement, the ministry said.
A total of 11 states and UTs, including Manipur and Tripura have shown improvement by 10%-20%.
Assam failed miserably to show major improvement in school education in 2019-20 as per the PGI chart.
Nine states/UTs including Assam, Mizoram and Sikkim have improved their score by just 0.1%-5%.