Pandemic led to districts slipping quality ranks in school education, says MoE report

The pandemic led to a decline in educational performance of many districts in the country, reveals a report from the Ministry of Education (MoE). The MoE released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) on July 9 as a combined report for 2020-21 and 2021-22 which assesses the performance of school education system at the district level.

The pandemic led to a decline in educational performance of many districts in the country, reveals a report from the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The MoE released the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) on July 9 as a combined report for 2020-21 and 2021-22 which assesses the performance of school education system at the district level.

Much like the PGI for States released earlier, this report too has 10 grades under which districts are categorised, with Daksh being the highest grade (above 90%), followed by Utkarsh (81%-90%); Ati-Uttam (71%-80%); Uttam (61%-70%); Prachesta-1 (51%-60%); Prachesta-2 (41%-50%); Prachesta-3 (31%-40%); Akanshi-1 (21% to 30%); and Akanshi-2 (11% to 20%). The lowest performance grade is Akanshi-3, for districts that score less than 10%.

While none of the districts were able to earn the top two grades — Daksh and Utkarsh — in the latest report, 121 districts were graded as Ati-Uttam for 2020-21, though this number fell by more than half in 2021-22, with just 51 districts making the grade. Further attesting to the pandemic effect, while 2020-21 had 86 districts under Prachesta-2 (sixth-highest grade), this number rose to 117 in 2021-22. 

Among districts that were graded as ‘Ati-Uttam’ for 2021-22 are Krishna and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh; Chandigarh; Dadra Nagar Haveli; several districts in Delhi, Karnataka, and Kerala; Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Bharat, Ganjam, Puri, and Khurdha in Odisha; Siddipet in Telangana; Valsad, Junagadh and Sabar Kantha in Gujarat, etc.

Tamil Nadu has several districts in the fourth-best grade (Uttam) and three categorised under Prachesta-1 (Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai and Theni). Uttar Pradesh has several districts under Uttam and Prachesta-1, and four under Prachesta-2. Most of the districts of Jammu and Kashmir fell under the Prachesta 1 and 2 grades.

Assam’s South Salmara-Mankachar district was the only district under Akanshi-1 for 2021-22 (antepenultimate grade) while the two grades at the bottom had no districts.