Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jul 8: India's school education system now has more than 1.03 crore teachers for the first time, with nearly 24.72 crore students enrolled across 14.67 lakh schools, according to fresh data released by the Union Ministry of Education.
The figures are part of the Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 for States and Union Territories and the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D) 2025-26, which assess the performance of school education systems across the country.
Both reports are based on data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) and other government platforms to provide a comprehensive assessment of the education sector.
The PGI framework does not rank States and Union Territories individually but groups them into performance bands, allowing multiple States or UTs to fall within the same category.
Developed by the Department of School Education and Literacy, the index is scored out of 1,000 points across 70 indicators. These indicators are classified under two broad heads—Outcome and Governance and Management—and cover six domains: learning outcomes and quality, access, infrastructure and facilities, equity, governance processes, and teacher education and training.
The assessment uses data from UDISE+, PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, the PM POSHAN Portal, the PRABANDH Portal, and the Vidyanjali Portal.
The ministry has also expanded the grading exercise to the district level through the Performance Grading Index for Districts (PGI-D), which evaluates every district using a common set of indicators with a stronger focus on educational outcomes.
The district index carries a maximum score of 600 points across 70 indicators, grouped under six categories: outcomes, effective classroom transactions, infrastructure and student entitlements, school safety and child protection, digital learning, and governance.
These categories encompass 11 broader domains, including learning outcomes, access, teacher availability, professional development, learning management, infrastructure, school safety, digital learning, fund utilisation, attendance monitoring, and school leadership.
The district-level assessment draws on data from UDISE+, PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024, and the PRABANDH Portal.
With more than 14.67 lakh schools catering to students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, the two performance indices are intended to provide policymakers with a comprehensive, data-driven picture of the functioning of India's school education system at both the state and district levels.