Wide gulf between State, Central govt schools: Experts on low Tamil Nadu school performance

COIMBATORE: Academicians have blamed the lack of a level playing field for schools run by State and Union governments as the reason for the Tamil Nadu school education department slipping a rung in the Performance Grading Index (PGI), for the academic year 2020-21.

The ranking was released by the Union Ministry of Education on Thursday.  

The Tamil Nadu school education department slipped from level II to III securing a score of 855. TN was in level II with a score of 906 in 2019-2020.

Educationist PB Prince Gajendra Babu told TNIE, “The union government runs different institutions like Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sainik and Navodaya which are special schools. But State governments run general schools. The Union government is not ready to ensure equitable access to education for all children. It is not even ready to discuss the issue. Without ensuring this, how Union government evaluate PGI.”

The PGI comprises a weightage of 1000 points under two categories of outcome and governance and management. These categories are divided into five domains like areas of learning outcome, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity and governance process.

The ministry of education used data from Shagun, NAS, UDISE, SMIS, and the MDM portal to compute the performance. In two categories, Tamil Nadu lost scores. It lost 36 points in the equity category and 11 points in the infrastructure and facility category.

Education development committee co-coordinator K Leninbarathi, “Not just the Union government, the State also is responsible in ensuring learning outcome, equity and infrastructure.  As the Tamil Nadu government is leading in education, without omitting this, it should take steps to find out issues and rectify them.” Attempts to reach School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi went in vain.