Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, Mar.1 (EMN): The Indian education system is one of the largest in the world with more than 15 lakh schools, 94 lakh teachers and nearly 25 crore students from varied socio-economic backgrounds. The system strives to maintain standards and uniformity across the country while giving ample scope for the country’s diverse culture and heritage to grow and flourish.
The schemes initiated by the department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL) along with the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, have resulted in significant improvement in accessibility. According to a recently released report by DoSel, under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), it has designed the Performance Grading Index (PGI) to catalyse transformational change in the field of school education. The PGI for the states and union territories (UTs) was first published in 2019 for the reference year 2017-18.
The PGI exercise envisages that the index would propel states and UTs towards undertaking multi-pronged interventions that will bring about the much-desired optimal education outcomes, the report stated. The PGI evaluation provides grade to the states and UTs, as opposed to ranking. Grading, by allowing several states and UTs to be considered at the same level, eliminates the phenomenon of improving a state only at the cost of others, thereby casting a stigma of underperformance on the latter though in effect they may have maintained status quo or even done better than earlier.
Three states and UTs, namely Chandigarh, Gujarat and Kerala have attained Level III (score 851-900), i.e., Grade I+. Only one state, namely Arunachal Pradesh is in Grade VI, i.e., score range 551 – 600. For the first time, three states and UTs have crossed the threshold of 85% PGI score and reached Grade I+. A total of 34 states and UTs have improved their total PGI score compared to 2017-18.
A major purpose of the PGI is creation of an environment, which would nudge each state/UT to improve its performance continuously. Four states namely Maharashtra (Grade I), Jharkhand (Grade II), Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (both in Grade III) have improved their score by more than 10%.
Fifteen states/UTs, namely, Chandigarh and Gujarat (in Grade I+); NCT of Delhi (in Grade I); Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Sikkim (in Grade II); Daman & Diu, Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir (UT) and Ladakh (UT) (in Grade III); Bihar and Lakshadweep (in Grade IV) and Nagaland (in Grade V) have improved their PGI score by 5% to 10%.
One state, Chhattisgarh, has maintained their 2017-18 score. Only two states, namely Andhra Pradesh (in Grade III) and Haryana (in Grade II) have scored less than the 2017-18 score, although their grade remains the same in both the current and the previous year. Remaining 15 states/UTs have improved their PGI score by less than 5%, according to the report.
The PGI Report for 2018-19 will be further analysed state/UT-wise. The reports will be available on the portal of MHRD. It is proposed that, in the future, awards for various categories would be based on these evidences suitably corroborated by spot inspections on a random sampling basis. The National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted by NCERT to measure the learning outcomes is also being streamlined to make the assessment process more objective.
In the arena of school education and literacy, guided by the enabling legislative framework of Right to Education and visionary Sustainable Development Goals, government schemes like Samagra Siksha , Mid Day Meal and similar such schemes by the states would deliver the desired result if they are monitored effectively, according to the report.