Assam among northeast’s top performers in school education, Meghalaya lowest in country: PGI report

Assam and Meghalaya have emerged as the two defining extremes of school education performance in northeast India, according to the Performance Grading Index 2.0 report released by the Union Ministry of Education for 2024-25.

Assam scored 593.6 out of 1,000, earning a Prachesta-3 grade and recording one of the sharpest improvements in the country — jumping more than 82 points from its 2023-24 score of 511.5. Meghalaya, at the other end, scored just 448, making it not only the weakest performer in the northeast but the single lowest-ranked state in the entire country. It is the only state nationally to sit in the Akanshi-3 band, the index's lowest grade.

The contrast between the two neighbouring states is striking. Assam earned an Uttam-3 grade in governance — placing it alongside national leaders Maharashtra, Chandigarh, and Odisha — while Meghalaya scored just 40.5 out of 130 in the same domain. On learning outcomes, which carry the highest weightage at 240 points and are considered the index's most critical measure, Assam scored 79.4 while Meghalaya managed only 47.2, the lowest figure among all northeastern states.

Meghalaya's performance across nearly every domain is cause for concern. Its infrastructure score stood at 62.1 out of 190, its teacher training score at 46.7 out of 100, and its governance score at 40.5 out of 130. The state improved by only about 30 points from its 2023-24 score of 417.9, the smallest gain in the entire region. Its only area of relative stability is equity, where it scored 208.7 out of 260, though analysts note this reflects uniformly low learning levels across all student categories rather than any particular group doing well.

Mizoram presents a different kind of puzzle. The state, which is the only fully literate state in the northeast, with a literacy rate consistently above 91 per cent, scored just 507.9 overall, placing it in the Akanshi-2 band alongside Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir.

Its learning outcomes score of 56.5 and infrastructure score of 72.9 suggest that high literacy, as traditionally measured, does not automatically translate into strong school system performance on contemporary indicators such as foundational learning, governance, and infrastructure quality.

Sikkim was the second-best performer in the region with a score of 603.3, climbing from Akanshi-1 last year to Prachesta-3. It posted the highest infrastructure score in the northeast at 112.3, reflecting relatively better school facilities. Arunachal Pradesh recorded one of the more encouraging climbs, gaining over 65 points to reach 527 and moving up a full grade band. Tripura (559), Manipur (557), and Nagaland (536.6) all improved by one grade each, indicating broad if uneven progress across the region.

Across the northeast, the Access domain — which tracks enrolment, retention, and out-of-school children — offered the most encouraging readings, with most states performing in the Uttam-3 or Prachesta-1 range. The Equity domain also showed relatively stable scores, with nearly all northeastern states landing in Uttam-1 or Uttam-2.

The persistent weaknesses lie in learning outcomes and governance, where the region as a whole trails significantly behind national leaders such as Punjab, which topped the country with a learning outcomes score of 150.4, and Chandigarh, which led the overall rankings with 739.1 points.

The ministry noted in the report that the national inter-state performance gap has narrowed from 51 per cent in 2017-18 to 39.4 per cent in 2024-25, crediting evidence-based monitoring and the government's Look East policy initiatives for part of this improvement. Whether that momentum reaches Meghalaya, and whether Mizoram can convert its celebrated literacy legacy into stronger school system outcomes, remains the central education question for the region going forward.