Report: Impact Of The Pandemic On Education
Context :
A combined report for 2020–21 and 2021–22, the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI–D) released by the Ministry on Sunday evaluates the district-level performance of the educational system.
What is Performance Grading Index for Districts and what does it tell?
- The Department of School Education & Literacy (DoSEL) created the Performance Grading Index (PGI) to assess how well Indian states are performing in terms of public education.
- To motivate them to enhance their performance in the area of education, it intends to compare the relative performance of all states and union territories (UTs) using a consistent scale.
- The PGI offers insightful information about the state of education in various states and UTs, emphasising major factors that influence performance and highlighting urgently needed improvements.
- Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D):
- Extension of PGI to the district level.
- Created by the DoSEL to provide district-level measures for effective assessments.
- Focuses on assessing districts using common parameters.
- Shifts attention towards outcome measurement of educational policies.
- Recognizes the importance of evaluating educational performance at the grassroots level.
- Aims to ensure targeted efforts and resources for improving education outcomes in districts.
- Monitors district-level progress and identifies areas for improvement.
- Facilitates evidence-based decision-making for enhancing educational quality and achievement.
How is this index calculated and how will it help society?
- A total of 600 points are allocated among 83 indicators in the PGI-D structure. Six broad categories are used to group these indicators:
- Outcomes: Assessment of learning outcomes and overall educational quality is the main focus of this category.
- Effective Classroom Transaction: It looks at how well teaching and learning are done in the classroom.
- Infrastructure Facilities & Student Entitlements: This category assesses the accessibility and calibre of in-school infrastructure facilities as well as the entitlements offered to students.
- Child Protection & School Safety: It evaluates the child protection policies and procedures put in place in schools.
- Digital learning: This category assesses how well digital learning technologies are incorporated and applied in the classroom.
- Governance process: The effectiveness and efficiency of the governing mechanisms within the educational system are examined.
- Each of these groups is further divided into 12 domains, which offer a more thorough evaluation of particular elements.
- The domains include Student Entitlements, School Safety and Child Protection, Digital Learning, Funds Convergence and Utilisation, Enhancing CRCs Performance, Attendance Monitoring Systems, and School Leadership Development. The domains also include Learning Outcomes and Quality, Access Outcomes, Teacher Availability and Professional Development Outcomes, Learning Management, Learning Enrichment Activities, Infrastructure Facilities, and Student Entitlements.
- To prevent one district from advancing at the expense of another, the PGI-D does not employ a ranking system. Instead, it focuses on identifying key areas where each district’s educational system needs to be improved and intervened in.
- Districts can use the PGI-D to pinpoint their areas of weakness, carry out the appropriate interventions, and seek to get the highest possible grade for educational performance.
What are the recent updates as per PGI-D?
- Grading System: The PGI-D report assigns districts one of ten grades based on their performance, much like the PGI for States does. The grades are Daksh, Utkarsh, Ati-Uttam, Uttam, Prachesta-1, Prachesta-2, Prachesta-3, Akanshi-1, Akanshi-2, and Akanshi-3, listed from highest to lowest.
- Grade Changes: According to the most recent report, none of the districts received the highest two grades, Daksh and Utkarsh. In the Ati-Uttam grade, there were 51 districts in 2021–22 as opposed to 121 in 2020–21. However, from 86 in 2020–21 to 117 in 2021–22, districts in the Prachesta–2 grade increased.
- Districts Maintaining Ati-Uttam Status: In 2021–2022, several districts—including Chandigarh, a few in Delhi and Gujarat, Satara, Kolhapur, Nashik, and Mumbai in Maharashtra, as well as Mumbai and Kolkata—maintained their Ati–Uttam status.
- Districts in Different Grades: Tamil Nadu has several districts in the Uttam grade and three districts in the Prachesta-1 grade (Ramanathapuram, Pudukkottai, and Theni). With four districts in Prachesta-2, Uttar Pradesh contains districts in the Uttam, Prachesta-1, and Prachesta-2 grades. The majority of Jammu and Kashmir’s districts are classified as Prachesta-1 or Prachesta-2.
- Akanshi-1 District: Assam’s South Salmara-Mankachar district was the only one to be assigned the Akanshi-1 grade for the years 2021–2022. Akanshi-2 and Akanshi-3 were the two lowest grades, and neither had districts.
