BHUBANESWAR: A day after the Ministry of Education in its Performance Grading Index (PGI) of 2020-21 pointed out the deteriorating standards of Odisha’s schools, the report on Saturday stirred up a political controversy.
The BJD government, which has revamped 8,000 schools in the last three years so far under its 5T school transformation programme, has taken strong exception to the ranking and accused the Union Education Ministry of making a deliberate attempt to show Odisha in poor light.
In a statement, BJD Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sasmit Patra said that 8,000 high schools are being transformed in Odisha which are providing high-quality education to lakhs of students of Odisha. “When Odisha has launched Mo School Abhiyan which is unique in the country and is being appreciated by people across the state, it is shocking to see the fall in the ranking of Odisha in the PGI report of schools by the Ministry of Education,” Patra said.
He added that it is sad and unfortunate that the Union Education Ministry is indulging in such kind of politics at the cost of the education system of Odisha. “We don’t recognise the rating given by the Ministry of Education as it is more to do with politics than merit. No wonder that the ranks of Utkal University, Sambalpur University and Berhampur University have also been reduced in the national rankings,” said Patra.
The PGI report states that Odisha, which ranked at the 10th position in the 2020-21, has now slipped to the 24th spot in 2021-22 ranking. The ministry arrived at the ranking by examining the UDISE+ 2021-22 data and National Achievement Survey-2021 data of the state schools.
The PGI index comprises of 1,000 points score which is drawn from aggregate score of six domains of educational attainment of states - learning outcomes, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity, governance processes and teacher education and training. Of these 1,000 points, Odisha has scored 517.1 points.
The School and Mass Education department, too, issued a statement on Saturday where it said that evaluation made by the ministry does not truly reflect the impact of initiatives like Mo School Abhiyan, 5T High School Transformation Programme and Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas on school education. It said that there is a pressing need for the ministry to reassess its approach and conduct a fair evaluation of the initiatives implemented by the government of Odisha.