The index aims to help states and UTs identify gaps in their school education system

A total of 33 states and Union Territories (UTs) have improved their Performance Grading Index (PGI) score for school education in 2019-20 compared to the previous year.

The Performance Grading Index with a set of 70 parameters is intended to catalyse transformational change in the field of school education.

According to the latest index, for the first time, 5 States and UTs have crossed the threshold of 90% PGI score and reached Grade I++. These states and UTs are Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.

Three States.and UTs - namely Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Grade I++), Punjab (Grade I++) and Arunachal Pradesh (Grade IV) - have improved their score by more than 20 percent.

A total of 33 States and UTs have improved their total PGI score in 2019-20 as compared to 2018-19.

One UT, namely Ladakh is in Grade VII i.e. Score range 0-550 while Meghalaya is in Grade V with a score range 601-650.

The index aims to help states and UTs to pinpoint gaps and accordingly identify areas for prioritization to ensure that the school education system is robust at all levels.

The PGI for the States and Union Territories (UTs) was first published in 2019 for the reference year 2017-18. The PGI for reference year 2018-19 was published in the year 2020.

The present publication, PGI 2019- PERFORMANCE GRADING INDEX (PGI) 2019-20 OF ALL STATEs AND UTs ON SCHOOL EDUCATION 20 at State/UT level, has been prepared with the same set of 70 parameters used for the two previous PGIs.

Revealing the methodology of the index, the report noted the PGI evaluation provides grade to the States and UTs, as opposed to ranking.

Grading, by allowing several States and UTs to be considered at the same level, eliminates the phenomenon of one improving only at the cost of others, thereby casting a stigma of underperformance on the latter, though, in effect they may have maintained status quo or even done better than earlier, say’s the report.

The PGI is structured in two categories, namely, Outcomes and Governance & Management and comprises 70 indicators in aggregate with a total weightage of 1000, it adds.

Each of the 70 indicators have an assigned weightage of either 10 or 20 points. For some of the indicators, there are sub-indicators.

In these sub-indicators, the total points of the indicator have been distributed among these sub-indicators, the report informs. If all sub-indicators are also counted, the total number of parameters considered in the PGI becomes 96, it explains.

The States and UTs have been assessed based on their performance against the benchmark for each indicator and sub-indicator, said the report.