VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has secured Grade 8 (Category: Akankshi-1) in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 released by the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Union Ministry of Education on Friday.
The PGI for States and Union Territories was first released in the year 2017-18 and so far has been released for every year till 2020-21. However, as the structure for the index was revised for 2021-22, it was renamed as PGI 2.0.
After releasing the results, the ministry clarified that the grades obtained by States and UTs in the previous editions are not comparable with the ones obtained in the new edition.
The grades are now assigned to States and UTs for 1,000 points across 73 indicators grouped into two categories—Outcomes and Governance Management (GM). Extra emphasis is laid on qualitative assessment, besides digital initiatives and teacher education.
These categories are further divided into six domains —Learning Outcomes (LO), Access (A), Infrastructure and Facilities (IF), Equity (E), Governance Process (GP) and Teachers’ Education and Training (TE&T), the report elaborated.
Depending on the points secured, States and UTs are assigned grades as Daksh (941 - 1000), Utkarsh (881 - 940), Atti-Uttam (821 - 880), Uttam (761 - 820), Prachesta - 1 (701 - 760), Prachesta - 2 (641 - 700) and Prachesta - 3 (581 - 640), Akanshi - 1 (521 - 580), Akanshi - 2 (461 - 520) and Akanshi - 3 (401 - 460).
None of the States/UTs achieved the top grades: Daksh, Utkarsh, Atti-Uttam, Uttam or Prachesta 1. As many as eight States/UTs achieved Prachesta 2 and 3 grades, while a total of 13 States got Akanshi-1, which is considered grade 8. States and UTs that fared better than AP are Chandigarh, Punjab, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.
AP shared the Akanshi-1 grade with Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh among others. Meanwhile, Telangana achieved Akanshi-2 with a score ranging between 461 and 520.
If the previous editions of PGI are considered, AP has made good progress in its grades. From getting no grade in 2017-18, AP, along with Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan, had attained Level II with a score of 901-950 in 2020-21. PGI 2.0 aims to propel States/UTs to undertake multi-pronged interventions to achieve optimal education outcomes in terms of improving quality.