Shillong, July 24 (IANS) The Education Department of the Meghalaya government on Friday introduced its first‑ever school‑level performance assessment framework, with Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma launching the Meghalaya School Performance Grading Index (MSPGI) 2025‑26 to evaluate the quality and preparedness of all recognised schools in the state.
The new framework will cover 11,443 recognised schools spread across Meghalaya’s 12 districts and is aimed at strengthening data‑driven planning and improving institutional standards across the school education system, officials said.
Developed by the Education Department using certified UDISE+ 2025‑26 data, the MSPGI assesses schools on 43 indicators grouped under five broad domains: accessibility, digital education, infrastructure, implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) initiatives, and quality‑related parameters. Each institution will be assigned a composite score out of 1,000.
Under the initiative, every school will receive a detailed School Report Card carrying its overall score, performance grade and state ranking. Launching the framework, Sangma said the MSPGI should be viewed as a tool for institutional improvement rather than a mechanism for competition among schools.
He said the grading system would help school heads, teachers, School Management Committees and education officials identify strengths, address deficiencies and prepare targeted improvement plans based on objective data.
Officials stated that the evaluation relies entirely on authenticated UDISE+ information submitted and verified by schools, ensuring uniformity and transparency in the assessment process. Schools have been classified into 17 performance categories, beginning with “Utkarsh” for outstanding institutions and extending to “Akanshi‑10” for schools requiring intensive support.
The department said the grading is benchmark‑based, allowing schools to measure progress against predefined standards instead of only comparing themselves with others.
The MSPGI has been designed on the lines of the Union Ministry of Education’s Performance Grading Index (PGI), making Meghalaya one of the first states to adapt the national framework for assessing individual schools.
The department also highlighted that Meghalaya has achieved its highest‑ever PGI score of 525.71 in 2025‑26, improving significantly from 401.62 in 2022‑23. The improvement has enabled the state to move from the Akanshi‑3 category to Akanshi‑1, marking its first exit from the lowest performance band under PGI 2.0.
–IANS
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