Chandigarh, Punjab, Delhi, Gujarat and Odisha have emerged as top performers in the Ministry of Education’s 2023–24 Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D), which evaluates school education at the district level.

Other high-performing states and Union territories include Kerala, Daman and Diu, Haryana, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. In contrast, Meghalaya was identified as the lowest-performing state, while Puducherry, Himachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal were rated average.

The PGI-D assesses states and UTs based on 74 indicators grouped into six categories such as learning outcomes, infrastructure, governance and digital learning. These indicators are used to assign performance grades, with ‘Utkarsh’ being the highest, requiring over 90% of total possible points. However, no state or UT has yet reached the top four bands, including ‘Daksh’ and ‘Uttam’.

The report highlights a narrowing performance gap among states, with inter-state disparity reducing from 51% in 2017–18 to 41% in 2023–24. Among the biggest improvers were Delhi, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Chandigarh and Goa, while Chhattisgarh, Punjab and West Bengal saw notable declines.

Despite some progress, the highest grade achieved so far is ‘Prachesta–1’, indicating that substantial improvement is still needed to meet the targets set by the National Education Policy 2020 and Sustainable Development Goal 4.

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