Six districts in the State have seen a drop in their grade in the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) report for 2021-22 as compared to that for 2020-21.
The PGI-D released by the Union Ministry of Education assesses the performance of the school education system at the district level.
All 14 districts in the State were graded Ati-Uttam (PGI score of 71% to 80%) in 2020-21, but in PGI-D 2021-22, six districts dropped to Uttam (PGI score of 61% to 70%). These are Alappuzha, Idukki, Kozhikode, Palakkad, Kasaragod, and Wayanad.
Though Thrissur rose to the top in 2021-22 from the third place in 2020-21 in the State, its score showed a decline from 468 out of 600 to 442.
Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam which shared the first position in 2020-21 dropped down to second and fifth in 2021-22, respectively. Kannur dropped from second position in 2020-21 to six in 2021-22, while Ernakulam jumped from fifth to third. Kozhikode, though, slipped from fourth position to 11th.
In 2021-22, Thrissur had 442 points, while Thiruvananthapuram had 441. Ernakulam had a score of 437, Kottayam 433, Kollam 427, Kannur 425, Malappuram 423, and Pathanamthitta 422 to secure the Ati-Uttam grade.
In the Uttam grade, Alappuzha had a score of 420, Idukki 418, Kozhikode 413, Palakkad 410, Kasaragod 402, and Wayanad 396.
In PGI-D for 2020-21, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram were tied with a score of 476, Kannur had 469, Thrissur 468, Kozhikode 467, Ernakulam 463, Alappuzha 461, Malappuram 457, Palakkad and Pathanamthitta 450, Kasaragod 445, Idukki 443, Kottayam 442, and Wayanad 433.
Kottayam and Idukki are the only districts that have made an improvement in their performance in 2021-22 when COVID-19 was at its peak as compared to 2019-20 (pre-pandemic) and 2018-19. The scores of all other districts in the State came down in 2021-22.
Idukki, however, saw its grade drop from Ati-Uttam in 2020-21 to Uttam in 2021-22, while Kottayam retained the Ati-Uttam grade from 2018-19 to 2021-22.
No district has attained the top two grades – Daksh and Utkarsh – in the two years. A total of 375 districts in the country remained in the same grade in 2021-22 as in 2018-19, while the performance of 158 districts fell during this period.
When it comes to the six categories of educational attainment, Ernakulam has the highest score of 173 out of 290 in Outcomes category in 2021-22, while Thiruvananthapuram led with 206 points in 2020-21.
In the Effective Classroom Transaction category, Ernakulam, Malappuram, Pathanamthitta, and Idukki had the highest score of 86 out of 90 in 2021-22. In 2020-21, Kollam topped with 87.
In Infrastructure, Facilities, and Student Entitlements, Thrissur topped with 49 out of 51 in both years.
In the School Safety and Child Protection segment, nine districts scored full 35 points in 2021-22 as compared to 10 districts the previous year.
In Digital Learning, Thrissur and Palakkad tied with 33 points out of 50 in 2021-22. In 2020-21, Palakkad had the highest 31 points.
Kasaragod topped the Governance Processes category with 83 points out of 84 in 2021-22. In 2020-21, Kasaragod again had 83 points, along with Kannur and Alappuzha.
