The education system in Bihar has received another blow, as the state has been ranked in the second last category in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2021-22. The PGI was released by the Union Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy. Bihar, along with 12 other states and union territories, including Jharkhand, Assam, and Odisha, achieved a Grade-2 ranking, with Bihar scoring 465. Grade-2 is given to states that score between 11 to 20% of the total points. Only three states – Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Mizoram – scored lower than Bihar and were placed in the Grade-3 category.
The PGI is a tool that provides insights into the Indian school education system and aims to offer information on the state of education in different states and union territories. It covers 73 indicators, focusing on qualitative assessment, digital initiatives, and teacher education. The grading in this edition is not comparable to previous editions.
Bihar received scores of 64.4 out of 240 in learning outcomes and quality, 41.80 out of 80 in access, 41.0 out of 190 in infrastructure and facility, 218.4 out of 260 in equity, 39.1 out of 130 in governance processes, and 60.3 out of 100 in teacher education and training. Amit Vikram, the state president of the TET Teachers’ Association, criticized the poor teacher-student ratio in Bihar schools. He also highlighted that teachers are often assigned non-teaching tasks, which negatively impact the quality of education.