Telangana slips in education score in post-COVID year

Telangana has been ranked 9^th in league with 12 other States in the Performance Grading Index released by the Ministry of Education for 2021-22. In the 2017-18 exercise, the State was ranked in the 7^th grade on similar parameters. None of the states could break into the top-5 ranks.

The PGI uses a grading scale from 1-10 using Hindi words departing from the earlier grading system with points scored out of 1000. Telangana scored 479.9, Bihar 465, Andhra Pradesh 543.8 and Delhi 636 with the highest points scored by Chandigarh 659.

The ranking system has been evolved for “undertaking multi-pronged interventions to achieve optimal education outcomes in terms of improving quality and also to motivate States and UTs to adopt best practices followed by the top performing States/UTs which can be replicated wherever possible in shortest possible time”.

In the learning outcomes, the State has been ranked 9^th with 10 other states with Telangana scoring 36.6 out of possible 240. Telangana scored high in terms of ’Equity’ (219.5 out of possible 260) and ‘Access’ (53.7 out of possible 80).

School education suffered a big blow across the world due to the COVID-19 lockdown and the study-from-home norm for millions of students. In Telangana, besides study-from-home, a number of private schools shut down. The economic distress of families forced some students to shift from budget and private schools to government schools, putting pressure on the resources in the schools.

The UN, in a report on COVID impact on pre-school children, calculated that 40 million children were affected. “They thus missed a stimulating and enriching environment, learning opportunities, social interaction and in some cases, adequate nutrition,” said the UN report ‘Education During Covid-19 and Beyond’ released at the peak of school shutdown in 2020.