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Gurgaon tops in Haryana school education rankings, southern districts fare poorly
Gurgaon district in Haryana has topped in state's school education performance, according to the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) released by the Union Ministry of Education for the academic years — 2022-23 and 2023-24– on Wednesday.
The district scored 422 in 2022-23 and 429 in 2023-24, achieving the Uttam-3 grade.
The PGI-D assesses 74 indicators across six categories: outcomes, effective classroom transactions, infrastructure, school safety, digital learning, and governance processes, with a total of 600 points. Gurgaon scored 182/290 in outcomes and 79/90 in effective classroom transactions in 2023-24.
Other southern districts of Haryana, including Mahendragarh, Rewari, Nuh, Palwal, and Faridabad, were ranked the state's lowest performers. Mahendragarh scored 305 in 2022-23 and 308 in 2023-24, placing it in the Prachesta-1 grade. Rewari scored 297 in 2022-23 and 304 in 2023-24, also in Prachesta-1. Nuh scored 267 in 2022-23 and 271 in 2023-24, falling in the Prachesta-2 grade. Palwal scored 256 in both years, remaining in Prachesta-2, while Faridabad scored 250 in 2022-23 and 258 in 2023-24, also in Prachesta-2.
Southern districts scored lower, with Nuh at 142/290 in outcomes and Palwal at 12/50 in digital learning in 2023-24.
The PGI-D grades districts based on their overall score out of 600 points, with each grade representing a percentage range: Utkarsh (above 90%, 541–600 points), Uttam-1 (81%–90%, 486–540 points), Uttam-2 (71%–80%, 426–480 points), Uttam-3 (61%–70%, 366–420 points), Prachesta-1 (51%–60%, 306–360 points), Prachesta-2 (41%–50%, 246–300 points), Prachesta-3 (31%–40%, 186–240 points), Akanshi-1 (21%–30%, 126–180 points), Akanshi-2 (11%–20%, 66–120 points), and Akanshi-3 (up to 10%, 0–60 points).
No district in Haryana achieved Utkarsh or Uttam-1, with Gurgaon's Uttam-3 being the state's highest grade.
Chandigarh, Punjab, and Delhi were the top three performers in the PGI 2.0 States' report for 2023-24, with scores 703, 631.1, and 623.7 respectively. No State/UT has scored in the higher ranges of 761 and above out of a total score of 1,000 points.
Kerala, Gujarat, Odisha, Haryana, Goa, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan also scored in the 581-640 range. The state that scored the lowest was Meghalaya (417.9). Just above it were Arunachal Pradesh (461.4), Mizoram (464.2), Nagaland (468.6), and Bihar (471.9).
In the middle range of 521-580 were Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
The PGI was introduced in 2017, and the Ministry revamped it as PGI 2.0 in 2021. The latest report, covering the years 2022-23 and 2023-24, draws data from the National Achievement Survey 2021, the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+), and information on the mid-day meal programme (PM-POSHAN).
The scores are meant to help states/UTs identify areas where they need to make interventions. Of the 36 states/UTs, 25 saw an improvement in their scores in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23. Chandigarh scored 687.8 in 2022-23, and Punjab scored 614.1, followed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 606.4, and Gujarat at 602.2.
Chandigarh was the top scorer in 2021-22 as well, with a score of 659, followed by Punjab (647.4) and Delhi (636.2).
'Since the grading and the indicators have changed, the results of PGI 2.0 are not strictly comparable with the previous PGI reports, though the pattern of achievement seems to be like the previous PGI results. The maximum deviation of a score of 302 or 42 per cent in the state of Meghalaya suggests that extra efforts are needed from these States to reach the top slot. However, the maximum deviation of 51 per cent noticed in 2017-18 has reduced to 41% suggesting that, PGI has helped these states to bridge the performance gap amongst states and Union Territories over the years,' the latest States' report stated.