HYDERABAD: Telangana may have significantly improved its position in the Ministry of Education’s Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 over the past four years, but weak learning outcomes and inadequate school infrastructure continue to hamper the quality of education in the state.
These concerns came to the fore during a two-day state-level residential orientation programme on the PGI, organised by the Telangana School Education Department, where a draft analysis of the state’s PGI performance was presented to district-level education officials.
According to the analysis, Telangana climbed from 31st to 18th among 28 states and eight Union Territories between 2021-22 and 2025-26, with its overall PGI score improving from 479.9 to 599.7.
However, the state’s weakest performance was in the Learning Outcomes and Quality category, the highest-weighted component of the PGI framework. Telangana secured only 69 out of 240 marks (28.8%), ranking 26th nationally. The low score suggests that improvements in enrolment and access to schools have not translated into better learning outcomes for students.
The report also identified infrastructure and facilities as another area requiring urgent attention. Telangana scored 91.9 out of 190 marks (48.4 per cent), ranking 20th in the country. The findings suggest that many government schools continue to lack adequate classrooms, laboratories, libraries, drinking water, sanitation facilities and other basic amenities. Although infrastructure indicators have shown gradual improvement over the past five years, they remain below the levels achieved by the country’s top-performing states.
Learning outcomes, the report noted, remained largely stagnant for three consecutive years before showing some improvement recently. However, the gains have not been substantial enough to improve the state’s standing in the national rankings.
According to the education department, an orientation programme was organised to equip district-level officials with a better understanding of the PGI framework, its indicators, data requirements and implementation strategies. The exercise is expected to strengthen district-level planning, monitoring and evidence-based interventions aimed at improving Telangana’s future performance.
Each district was represented by a seven-member team comprising district educational officer, district planning coordinator, district quality coordinator, assistant statistical coordinator, one best-performing mandal educational officer, one best-performing school complex headmaster or headmistress, and one best-performing cluster resource person.
“The state now needs sustained investment in foundational literacy and numeracy, teacher capacity building, regular assessment and academic mentoring rather than concentrating only on physical expansion,” said R Venkataiah, an educationist.
Another expert , M Ravinder, said providing classrooms and digital infrastructure is important, but these investments must be complemented by effective classroom practices, teacher support and continuous monitoring. Unless learning outcomes improve, higher PGI scores alone will not reflect meaningful educational progress.