BENGALURU: Karnataka showed an overall improvement in school education, attaining a Level 3 (score 851-900) grading, up from Level 5 (751-800) in 2018-19, and placed 14th in the country, according to the Performance Grading Index (PGI), 2020-21, report released by the Union Ministry of Education on Thursday.
However, the state showed slow growth in the government’s involvement in the education and equity domain.
Across various domains, Karnataka showed 5% increase in enrolment and retention of students and achieved National Education Policy’s universal access to education. Further, the state witnessed a 25 per cent increase in improved infrastructural facilities.
The growth in the equity domain was not up to the mark, less than 5 per cent, which focussed on bridging social gaps and providing equal quality of education to all. Lastly, the government domain did not show much progress, around 4 per cent, which highlighted digital attendance of students, and teachers, transfer of funds digitally, time taken by the state government to release funds, filling vacancies and transfer of teachers through a transparent online system among others.
The PGI evaluation classifies states and union territories into grades/levels as opposed to rankings. Grading allows states and UTs to be considered at the same level, eliminating the trend of one state showing improvement at the cost of others.
It measures the performance of states/universities on a uniform scale to catalyse transformational change in the field of school education. The aim is to provide insights into school status, including critical areas of performance and gaps, in the system.