School education goals for Northeast

The Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 of States and Union Territories released by the Ministry of Education holds up a mirror on their disappointing performance in respect of school education. The index is a ready reckoner for States and UTs to identify the gaps and take corrective measures ahead of 100% implementation of National Education Policy 2020 in 2024-25. The report reveals that none of the States/UTs has attained the top five grades in 2021-22 which are in the range from 51% to 100%. Only one state and one UT- Punjab and Chandigarh attained the sixth grade with scores in the range of 41%-50% which point towards multiple challenges that lie ahead for the entire country. The report describes the PGI 2.0 scores to be the aggregate score of six domains of educational attainment of States/ UTs - learning outcomes, access, infrastructure & facilities, equity, governance processes and teacher education & training. Only six states are with scores in the range of 31% -40%, 13 states score in the range of 21% to 30%. Altogether 12 states, including Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura, have been placed in the second grade from the bottom with scores in the range of only 11%-20% while Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya have figured in the lowest grade with scores up to 10% of total points. This speaks volume of the poor performance of the states in the northeast region as compared to states and UTs in rest of India. One of the main purposes of PGI 2.0, according to the report, is to make States and UTs aware of the areas where there is scope for improvement and strive to reach the maximum possible score. States, however, have a strong fundamental which will help them to improve scores in other domains with 31 states having figured in the second grade from the top with scores in the range of 81% to 90% in one of the critical domains- Equity i.e. ensuring that every child gets the opportunity to learn and excel and different social category gaps are bridged. Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) 2020-21 data shows that India has 14.89 lakh schools, more than 95 lakh teachers and nearly 26.52 crore students of pre-primary to higher secondary level from varied socio-economic backgrounds. Access to quality and affordable education is the key to groom each of these students to take his or her position in the country’s pool of Human Resource and meaningfully contribute to nation building. Foundational learning at the school level is crucial to shape the children for their career goals. Infrastructure improvement in schools and providing modern educational facilities like smart classroom, science laboratories, sports equipment, libraries etc. play a crucial role in raising the standards of learning outcomes. The National Education Policy 2020 envisages assessing and accrediting public and private schools (except the schools that are managed/aided/controlled by the Central government) on the same criteria, benchmarks, and processes, emphasizing online and offline public disclosure and transparency, so as to ensure that public-spirited private schools are encouraged and not stifled in any way. States must ensure that government-run schools do not lag behind private schools in terms of infrastructure, availability of textbook as well as reference books, teachers training etc. so that they are not disadvantaged with respect to private schools in assessment and accreditation. The NEP also envisages reducing curriculum content in each subject to its core essentials, to make space for critical thinking and more holistic, inquiry-based, discovery-based, discussion-based, and analysis-based learning. The mandated content will focus on key concepts, ideas, applications, and problem solving. Teaching and learning will be conducted in a more interactive manner; questions will be encouraged, and classroom sessions will regularly contain more fun, creative, collaborative, and exploratory activities for students for deeper and more experiential learning, it states. States figuring in the bottom grades of PGI 2.0, more particularly the states in the northeast region undertaking comprehensive review as to where their schools stand in respect of these requirements will be useful in drawing the roadmaps. The Union Cabinet last year approved a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme named Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PMSHRI) which will showcase the implementation of the NEP 2020 and emerge as exemplar schools over a period of time, and also offer leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood. Encouraging others schools to strive for achieving the NEP goals and best practices will ensure that gap between those and PMSHRI schools is continuously bridged in respect of infrastructure, teaching learning environment and learning outcomes and entire school education can make rapid progress. States making effort to improve their PGI is the pragmatic approach to achieve the NEP goals for school education. For north-eastern states, the challenge to achieve the goals is tougher but can be overcome with little extra efforts.