State’s PGI ranking impacted by edn sector challenges: CM

By Our Reporter

SHILLONG, May 27: The state government on Wednesday attributed Meghalaya’s poor performance in the national Performance Grading Index (PGI) to long-standing struc- tural and administrative challenges in the education sector.

The government is hopeful that reforms initiated over the past few years would gradu- ally improve the state’s rankings.

Briefing reporters, Chief Minister Con- rad K. Sangma said education remained a “complicated and sticky” subject. He said multiple factors contributed to Meghalaya being placed at the bottom of the latest PGI 2.0 assessment released by the Ministry of Education.

The report placed Meghalaya as the lowest-performing state in the country with a score of 417.9 out of 1,000, relegating it to the 10th and lowest grade category.

Though the state’s score improved mar- ginally from 401.6 in 2022-23, it remained behind other low-ranking states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and Bihar.

Sangma said one of the key factors affect- ing Meghalaya’s performance was the struc- ture of the school system, where multiple schools often functioned within the same building but were registered separately with different Unified District Information System for Education (UDISE) numbers.

According to him, each school was as- sessed independently under the PGI frame- work which adversely impacted the state’s average performance.

The Chief Minister said the government had already made several interventions to address weaknesses in the education sec- tor, including the introduction of structured pay for teachers. He maintained that such reforms were specifically aimed at improv- ing educational outcomes and strengthening Meghalaya’s future PGI performance.

Sangma said the state had started wit- nessing improvements in certain indicators, particularly in reducing dropout rates, which had fallen to around six per cent – below the national average.

He stated that Meghalaya’s dropout rate had earlier been affected by poor SSLC pass percentages, as students, who failed in the Class 10 examinations, were unable to pursue higher secondary education.

Stating that reforms in education take time to show results, (Contd on P-7)