Maharashtra's performance drops in revamped school education index

MUMBAI: Maharashtra's Performance Grading Index (PGI) dropped from last year while Chandigarh and Punjab emerged as the best performing states for the academic year 2021-22. No state or union territory, however, could achieve the highest grade of 91% and above.

PGI measures the transformational change in school education in India.

The PGI 2.0 revamped to include new indicators, including digital education, was released by the education ministry. The 2020-21 PGI left out digital education. The weightage given to Governance Pro-cesses 340 of 1,000 points has been reduced in PGI 2.0, following criticism by educationists. It is now 84 points.

Maharashtra with 583.2 of 1,000 points was placed in Prachesta-3 category (31%-40%) along with Gujarat (599), Kerala (609.7), Delhi (636.2), Puducherry (592.7) and Tamil Nadu (590.4). Last year at level 2, the state scored 928 out of 1,000 along with Punjaj and Kerala.

However, the education ministry has said that as PGI 2.0 is an upgraded version, it cannot be compared to the scores of the past years, beginning 2017 when it began.

The PGI ratings are based on the 2021-22 data available on UDISE+ and National Ach-ievement Survey, 2021 portals. Final certification of the filled data can be done even after the release of the report.

As the parameters of assessment have been broadened for 2021-22, all 36 districts in the state managed to hold on to their scores. In 2021-22, four districts achieved a score of 821-800. In 2020-21, there were five districts. In 2021-22, 32 districts reached the 761-820 points and in 2020-21, it was 31 districts.

Among the states, Satara achieved the highest rating, followed by Mumbai, Nashik and Kolhapur.

In Learning Outcomes, which measured the language and mathematics learning outcomes of class 3,5,8 and 10 of government and aided schools, Sindhudurg emerged on the top with 181 of 290 points, followed by Kolhapur (180) and Solapur (178).

For Effective Classroom Transaction, 35 districts, including Mumbai city (87/90) and suburbs (88/90), achieved the highest level 'Daksh'. For School Safety and Child Protection, all districts were placed in top positions (35/35).

In Digital Learning, Mumbai suburban schools were on the top with 30 out of 50. For Governance Processes, Mumbai suburbs made it to the top slot with 78 out of 84 points.