Chennai, Nov 4 (IANS): Tamil Nadu has slipped a notch below in the Performance Grading Index (PGI) released by the Department of School Education and Literacy under the Ministry of Education on Thursday.

Kerala and Andhra Pradesh retained their positions among the top seven performing states in the country along with Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chandigarh and Maharashtra.

The Performance Grading Index (PGI) is a comprehensive analysis of school education system across the country.

The report stated that seven states -- Punjab, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Chandigarh -- attained Level 2 score of 901-950, while Tamil Nadu was a notch below in Level 3, scoring in the band of 851-900.

Interestingly, no state has attained the Level 1 score of 951-1000 as also the lowest band of Level 10, which is between 0 and 550.

According to the report, the most improved performance was by Ladakh, which attained Level 4 score in 2020-21 after featuring in Level 10 in 2019-20.

The Department of School Education and Literacy developed the Performance Grading Index for states and Union Territories to get an overview of the performance and achievements of school education across the country.

The main objective is to develop evidence-based policy-making and to ensure quality education for all students across the country. The Ministry of Education in its report said that the PGI is expected to help states and UTs point out the gaps in the education system and prioritise areas of intervention to make sure that the school education system is at a high standard at all levels.

The grading system was introduced in 2017-18, and no state has achieved the Level 1 grade till now.