Shillong, May 27: The impact of education reforms undertaken in the past three to four years will begin to show in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) for 2025-26, expected in June-July, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said on Wednesday.
“Education is a very complicated and sticky subject and there are multiple factors that lead to the PGI ranking,” Sangma said.
Pointing out structural challenges affecting the state’s ranking, he said, “…in the same building, there are four schools but technically there should be 1 school, but they have got their own UDISE number… each one is assesed in different manner and the overall performance in each one is reflected in the average of the state… many factors bring down the numbers.”
Sangma said recent policy decisions were aimed at improving PGI parameters. “The decision we took, like the decision to have a pay structure for SSA teachers and different teachers, is precisely being done to impact the PGI,” he said.
Citing improvements in key indicators, he said, “Now you will see small things that are being done like when the pass percentage has gone up. Our dropout has gone down below the national average which is 6%,” he said.
Explaining past trends, he added, “Why our dropout was high is because 50% of our students SSLC fail… the question of them going to class XII does not arise, and that impacts our PGI ranking… there are points for everything.”
The Chief Minister expressed optimism about the upcoming assessment. “…Please wait for the 2025-2026 assessment that is going to come out in the month of June-July and I am very hopeful that our numbers will go up,” he said.
He stressed that reforms in education take time to show results. “All the work and decision that we have done in the last 3-4 years to push up education, we will see some impact of that on 2025-26 PGI ranking… it takes time to show results,” Sangma said.
