PERFORMANCE GRADING INDEX (PGI) - REPORTS AND INDICES

News: Pandemic led to districts slipping in quality ranks in school education

 

What's in the news?

       The pandemic led to a decline in educational performance of many districts in the country, reveals a report from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

 

Key takeaways:

       The MoE released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) as a combined report for 2020-21 and 2021-22 which assesses the performance of school education system at the district level.

 

Grades:

       The report has 10 grades under which districts are categorized, with Daksh being the highest grade (above 90%), followed by Utkarsh (81%-90%); Ati-Uttam (71%-80%); Uttam (61%-70%); Prachesta-1 (51%-60%); Prachesta-2 (41%-50%); Prachesta-3 (31%-40%); Akanshi-1 (21% to 30%); and Akanshi-2 (11% to 20%). The lowest performance grade is Akanshi-3, for districts that score less than 10%.

 

Findings of the report:

       While none of the districts were able to earn the top two grades — Daksh and Utkarsh — in the latest report, 121 districts were graded as Ati-Uttam for 2020-21, though this number fell by more than half in 2021-22, with just 51 districts making the grade.

       Tamil Nadu has several districts in the fourth-best grade (Uttam) and three categorized under Prachesta-1 (Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai and Theni).

       Uttar Pradesh has several districts under Uttam and Prachesta-1, and four under Prachesta-2.

       Assam’s South Salmara-Mankachar district was the only district under Akanshi-1 for 2021-22 (antepenultimate grade) while the two grades at the bottom had no districts.

 

Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D):

Objective:

       To help State education departments identify gaps at the district level and improve their performance in a decentralized manner.

       To help the districts to priorities areas for intervention in school education and thus improve to reach the highest grade.

 

Released by - Ministry of Education

Indicators and Categories:

       The PGI-D structure has a total weightage of 600 points comprising 83 indicators under six categories such as

a.       Outcomes

b.      Effective Classroom Transaction

c.       Infrastructure Facilities and Student’s Entitlements

d.      School Safety and Child Protection

e.       Digital Learning and

f.        Governance Process.

 

12 domains:

       The above-mentioned categories are further divided into 12 domains - learning outcomes and quality; access outcome, teacher availability and professional development outcomes; learning management; learning enrichment activities; infrastructure; facilities; student entitlement; school safety and child protection; digital learning; funds convergence and utilization; attendance monitoring systems; and school leadership development.