The Performance Grading Index (PGI) Report combined report of two years evaluated a district based on its learning outcome, infrastructure, education quality and other such factors.
The Union Ministry of Education released its annual Performance Grading Index (PGI) Report combined report of 2020-21 and 2021-22. (Creative Commons)
The Union Ministry of Education released its annual Performance Grading Index (PGI) Report — jointly of 2020-21 and 2021-22 — earlier this week along with a separate report for each state and Union Territory (UT).
The reports examine the performance of the school education system of each state at the district level during the time when Covid-19 was at its peak and schools switched to the online medium.
According to the report, Telangana plunged to the bottom of the ladder not just among the southern states but across the country.
The rest of the states from South India did relatively better, the combined report of two years stated.
The PGI report is prepared based on 83 indicators. They include learning outcomes and quality of education in each district, access to schools, infrastructure, facilities, effective classrooms, inclusive and equitable education, child protection and safety, governance, and teachers’ education and training.
Learning outcome has the highest points — 290. It can be further classified as an indicator of how much students know to read, write, and numerically calculate according to their age and grade.
As per the PGI-district report, Telangana dipped over 6 percentage points in 2021-22 from the previous year as its average score was a meagre 326 out of 1,000 points in the PGI-States report.
Of the 33 districts in the state, which have been evaluated on 600 points in the PGI-Districts report, Medchal finished at the top with 381, followed by Hanumakonda and Siddipet.
Meanwhile, Suryapet, Peddapalli, and Adilabad fared at the bottom of the table, respectively.
However, Medchal’s score also took a major hit from the previous year when it scored 481.
Overall, in the 2021-22 report, 23 of Telangana’s districts were placed in the “Prachesta-1” category (fifth best), six in “Prachesta-2” (sixth best) and four in “Uttam” (fourth best).
This was a major drop from the previous year’s report as 14 of the state’s districts were in the “Uttam” category and Siddipet in the “Ati-Uttam” (third best) category.
The drop put Telangana in the “Akanshi-2” category — the second-lowest of the 10 categories after — along with 11 other states.
No other southern state was ranked in this category.
Moreover, Hyderabad’s score took an 8 percentage point drop as it scored 319 in 2021-22 from the previous year when it scored 361 points.
This was Hyderabad’s worst performance in the last four years as it descended from the “Uttam” category (fourth best).
A major factor could be its learning outcome score, which dropped from 156 to 121 points out of 290.
Meanwhile, according to the 2022 Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), one of the largest management information systems on school education, Telangana and its neighbour Andhra Pradesh together accounted for more than 75 percent of schools lacking basic amenities in the southern states.
Kerala, which is known for its remarkable literacy rate, topped the table among the southern states. It stood fourth across the country, behind Chandigarh, Punjab, and Delhi.
With a score of 609.7, the state was placed in the “Prachestha-3” category (fourth from the bottom) along with its neighbour Tamil Nadu.
The latter finished with 590.4 points, ranking second among southern states.
While all 14 districts of Kerala were in the “Ati-Uttam” category in the 2020-21 report, the state’s average score dropped in 2021-22 as six districts moved a step downwards to the “Uttam” category.
As per the report, Tamil Nadu was the only state in South India that performed consistently during the two years. All its 37 districts — 34 in the “Uttam” category and three in “Prachesta-1” — remained in the same place.
Just like Hyderabad, the two state capitals Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai also faced one of their worst performances in the last four years.
While Kerala's capital finished at 441 points ("Ati-Uttam" category), Tamil Nadu's capital scored 391 ("Uttam").
Over the two years, Thiruvananthapuram slipped to 165 points from 226 in learning outcome while Chennai took a 12 points drop — from 149 to 137.
Karnataka stood at third spot among Southern states and 14th overall as it was awarded 549.7 points. Andhra Pradesh (543.8) finished six points behind the former.
Both the states were placed in the "Akanshi-1" category (third lowest) as they saw a five percentage point drop in 2021-22.
While 13 of Karnataka's districts were in the "Ati-Uttam" category in 2020-21, it suffered a setback as no district found a place in next year's report.
Andhra Pradesh shared a similar story as none of its districts remained in "Ati-Uttam" compared to the previous year.
Karnataka's capital Bengaluru was divided into Urban North, South, and Rural. Only Bengaluru Rural witnessed its worst performances in the past four years: It slid from the "Ati-Uttam" category in 2020-21 to "Uttam".
However, all three saw a drop in total as well as learning outcomes points in 2021-22 compared to previous years.
The only standout was Andhra Pradesh's -o be executive capital and a major port city Visakhapatnam, which saw its best score (397 points) in the past four years.
However, its learning-outcome score also saw a dip of 15 points — from 168 in 2020-21 to 153 a year later.
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