States fail to get the highest grade in schooling

While Chandigarh and Punjab were the top performers in school education for the year 2021-22, none of the States or Union Territories could achieve the highest grade — Daksh — in the annual survey released by the Union government.

The Ministry of Education's (MoE) Performance Rating Index (PRI) released on Friday had 10 marks — with Daksh topping (scoring over 940 out of 1,000 marks) and Akanshi-3 at the bottom (up to 460 marks ). None of the states managed to achieve the top five points in the ranking.

Chandigarh and Punjab, despite being at the top among the States, could only secure the sixth highest rank of Prachesta-2, followed by Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu in Prachesta -3.

Thirteen states, including Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, have been categorized as Akankshi-1 states, where the scope for improvement is significant.

Further down (Akankshi-1) are 12 States, including the northeastern states of Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Assam as well as Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh.

Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram have been grouped under Akankshi-3.

Since 2017-18, the Ministry of External Affairs has published five annual reports that provide information on the status of school education in States and UTs. The key areas are learning outcomes and quality, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity and school governance processes based on five dimensions.

The first parameter relates to 'learning outcomes', i.e. how children do in language, mathematics, science, social studies, etc. upper primary and secondary level and integration of the out-of-school dimension. The third parameter, 'infrastructure', includes availability of science labs, computer labs, book banks, vocational training subject, provision of mid-day meal, functional drinking water facility, availability of uniforms, free textbooks, etc.

The fourth parameter, 'equity', takes into account the performance of students among minorities, scheduled castes, tribes and those in the general category. It also relates to whether schools have ramps, disabled-friendly toilets, etc. The last parameter, “educational governance and management”, includes the digital capture of daily attendance, the percentage of primary schools with one teacher, teaching vacancies, inspections, teacher evaluation and so on.

Based on their scores, states can take sector-level action to improve their scores in the future, the report said.

The 10 points in which states are ranked are: Daksh (score above 940 out of 1000 points); Utkarsh (881-940); Atti-Uttam (821-880); Uttam (761-820); Prachesta 1 (701-760); Prachesta 2 (641-700); Prachesta 3 (581-640); Akanshi 1 (521-580); Akanshi 2 (461-520); Akanshi 3 (401-460).