The Performance Grading Index of all States and Union Territories on school education released by the Ministry of Education on Sunday has put Telangana in the fourth category behind twenty States and UTs for the reference year 2019-20.
Telangana is clubbed with Goa, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Manipur and Sikkim in Grade II in a score range of 751 - 800 points out of a total weightage of 1,000 points.
The report showed that Telangana occupied 21st position in the country in creating infrastructure and facilities for school education, 26th in equity, including provision of girls toilets, 26th in governance processes, 12th in learning outcomes and 19th in access to education.
In a score range of 901 - 950, Andaman and Nicobar islands, Chandigarh, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu were in Grade I ++, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan in Grade I + (851 - 900 points), Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Daman & Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh in Grade I (801 - 850).
With Telangana and seven other States in Grade II (751 - 800), Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram were in Grade III (701 - 750), Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Nagaland in Grade IV (651 - 700), Meghalaya in Grade V (601 -650) and Ladakh in Grade VII (0 - 550). There were no States in Grade VI (551 - 600). This was the first year of States touching a score of 901 950.
This year, none of the States were in score range of 951 - 1,000. In the first year of the publication of the report in 2019 (reference year 2017-18), the top most score was in 801 - 850 range. The same went up to score range of 851 -900 in 2020 (2018-19) and, this year, the highest score reached 901 - 950.
Prepared with seventy parameters, the PGI evaluation provided grades to States as opposed to ranking. Each of the seventy indicators were assigned weightage of ten or twenty points. The States were assessed based on their performances against the benchmarks.
The data for 54 of the 70 parameters was taken according to 2019-20 publication and updated by States themselves. The scores given by National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) were used for the remaining 16 parameters.
