Lucknow, 07 June (HS) : In what appears to be a major breakthrough in the field of literacy and quality education in Uttar Pradesh, the state has jumped to Level IV, Grade 1 with a score of 801-850, in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) report of Union Ministry of Education for 2019-20.
Uttar Pradesh has reported consistent growth in the PGI during the last three years, getting Level VIII, Grade V with an overall score of 601-650 in 2017-18; Level VI, Grade III with 701-750 points in 2018-19; and Level IV, Grade 1 with 801-850 points in 2019-20.
Uttar Pradesh is also one of the 11 states that has improved its score by 10 to 20 percent.
Uttar Pradesh currently shares its position with Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Daman and Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Tripura. In access to education and educational outcomes UP has performed fairly well.
In the present PGI, 54 of the 70 parameters were used for 2019-20. The updating of the data and vetting of the same was done by states and union territories through online platforms like Shagun, UDISE+, and Mid Day Meal (MDM) created and maintained by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSEL).
For the remaining 16 parameters, scores from National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2017 conducted by the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) were used in all the three PGIs, namely, PGI 2017-18, PGI 2018-19 and PGI 2019-20.
It is worth mentioning here that Performance Grading Index (PGI) was designed in order to bring about transformational change in the field of school education. It was the next step to the schemes initiated by DoSEL along with the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act that resulted in significant improvement in accessibility to education.
It also significant that the Yogi Adityanath Government in its last budget of the present term proposed several measures to boost the education sector. The government has earmarked a total of Rs 18,172 crore for the integrated education campaign as well as Rs 110 crore and Rs 40 crore, respectively, for providing free school bags and uniforms to all students from class 1 to class 8 every year in the budget for 2021-22. In addition to this, Rs 3,406 crore has been allocated for the Mid-Day Meal programme and Rs 300 crore for providing shoe-stocking and sweaters to all children.
Furthermore, Rs 200 crore has been earmarked for developing infrastructure in aided private secondary schools while Rs 100 crore has been proposed to complete the remaining works of the under construction government inter colleges and Rs 90 crore for the construction of one new Sainik School in Gorakhpur and completion of Sainik Schools in Mainpuri, Jhansi and Amethi.
One of the main purposes of the PGI is to make the States and UTs aware of the areas where there is scope for improvement and strive for achieving the maximum possible score and the highest Grade/Level.
