Key Details
The Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for Districts 2025–26 assesses school education performance across 784 districts using 70 indicators and a 600-point framework covering learning outcomes, governance, infrastructure, digital learning and school safety.
Area | 2025–26 Findings | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
Coverage | 784 districts assessed across 70 indicators and 11 domains | Provides a common national framework for district-level assessment. |
Overall progress | 473 districts improved their scores; 89 moved to a higher grade | Indicates broad-based improvement in school education performance. |
Highest grades | No district achieved the overall Utkarsh or Uttam-1 categories | Highlights continuing gaps in learning outcomes and institutional performance. |
Digital learning | 770 districts improved their scores | Suggests continued expansion of digital education capacity. |
School safety | 719 districts improved | Reflects stronger attention to student protection and school environments. |
Classroom practices | 672 districts improved in Effective Classroom Transaction | Points to gradual improvements in teaching and learning processes. |
Most Districts Improved, but the Highest Standards Remain Elusive
The Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for Districts shows that school education performance improved across much of India during 2025–26, with 473 districts recording higher overall scores and 89 districts advancing to a higher performance grade. However, no district achieved the highest overall grades of Utkarsh or Uttam-1, indicating that while progress is widespread, consistently high performance across learning outcomes, governance and school quality remains a challenge.
The assessment covered 784 districts using a 600-point framework built around 70 indicators spanning learning outcomes, access, teacher availability, classroom practices, infrastructure, digital learning, school safety and governance. Rather than ranking districts against one another, PGI 2.0 evaluates them against predefined performance benchmarks, encouraging continuous institutional improvement instead of competitive league tables.
Progress Extends Beyond Infrastructure to Educational Quality
The report records improvement across several dimensions of school education. Digital Learning showed gains in 770 districts, School Safety and Child Protection improved in 719 districts, while Effective Classroom Transaction—covering classroom management, teaching practices and learning processes—improved in 672 districts. Infrastructure and student entitlement indicators also strengthened across hundreds of districts.
Although no district reached the top overall grades, more districts entered higher performance bands than in the previous assessment, suggesting gradual improvements in institutional capacity rather than isolated gains in individual indicators.
Integrated Data Systems Are Reshaping Education Governance
PGI 2.0 combines data from UDISE+, PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan (PRS) 2024 and the PRABANDH Portal, enabling districts to monitor educational performance through a common evidence base. The framework integrates measures of learning proficiency, teacher development, financial management, digital infrastructure, attendance monitoring and school leadership, reflecting the broader shift under NEP 2020 from expanding school access to improving educational quality and system performance.
By bringing together multiple national datasets, the index provides district administrators with a diagnostic tool for identifying implementation gaps, prioritising interventions and tracking progress over time.
What is PGI 2.0 for Districts?
The Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for Districts is a performance assessment framework developed by the Department of School Education and Literacy to evaluate school education across learning outcomes, governance, infrastructure and teaching quality. Unlike conventional rankings, PGI 2.0 assigns districts to performance grades based on absolute benchmarks, allowing multiple districts to achieve the same grade simultaneously. The approach is intended to encourage continuous improvement and help administrators identify priority areas for intervention rather than compete for rank.
Policy Relevance
No district reached the highest overall performance categories, suggesting that expanding school access must now be matched by sustained improvements in learning quality, governance and classroom practices.
PGI 2.0 treats educational quality as a multidimensional policy objective by combining learning outcomes with governance, teacher development, digital learning, infrastructure and school safety rather than focusing on examination outcomes alone.
The integration of UDISE+, PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan and PRABANDH strengthens evidence-based policymaking by enabling interoperable education data and continuous performance monitoring.
District-level grading enables more targeted policy intervention by providing governments with a more actionable basis for directing administrative support, capacity building and public investment than aggregate state-level indicators alone.
Recent improvements extend beyond infrastructure towards education quality, with gains across digital learning, school safety and classroom practices indicating broader institutional reforms.
Follow the Full Report Here: Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for Districts 2025–26