By Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar: Odisha has retained its ‘Prachesta-2’ grade in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for 2025–26, released by the Union Ministry of Education, reflecting steady performance in school education while underscoring the need to improve learning outcomes.
The state scored 651.5 out of 1,000, marginally lower than 655.2 in the previous assessment. The PGI 2.0 framework assesses states and Union Territories (UTs) across 70 indicators aligned with the objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
Odisha’s strongest performance came in the Equity domain, where it earned an Uttam-1 grade with 225.7 out of 260 points. The score reflects the state’s success in reducing disparities across social groups, gender, and rural-urban regions, making it one of the country’s best-performing states in ensuring inclusive education.
The state also received an Uttam-1 grade in Access, scoring 65.2 out of 80, indicating strong performance in student enrolment, retention, and transition from primary to higher secondary education.
In Teacher Education and Training, Odisha secured an Uttam-2 grade with 77 out of 100, reflecting improvements in teacher qualifications and professional development.
The state earned Prachesta-1 grades in Infrastructure and Facilities and Governance Processes, scoring 113.17 out of 190 and 71.1 out of 130, respectively. These domains assess the availability of ICT and science laboratories, smart classrooms, libraries, drinking water, sanitation facilities, digital attendance systems, timely fund disbursal, and efforts to mainstream out-of-school children.
However, Learning Outcomes emerged as Odisha’s weakest area. The state scored 99.3 out of 240, placing it in the Prachesta-2 category for this domain. The assessment, based on the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, measures student proficiency in language, mathematics, and science, indicating that improving classroom learning remains a major challenge.
Nationally, Odisha is among five states and UTs in the Prachesta-2 category, alongside Maharashtra, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, and Lakshadweep. Notably, no state has yet achieved the highest Utkarsh or Uttam-1 overall grades, underscoring the scope for improvement across India’s school education system.
The report suggests that while administrative reforms have enabled Odisha to perform strongly in access and equity, sustained investments in teaching quality, classroom practices, and modern educational infrastructure will be crucial for the state to move into the higher performance categories in the coming years.
