Chandigarh, July 8 -- City Beautiful has the best school education system in the country while Punjab, Kerala, Delhi and the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have the second best, according to the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0, released by the Union ministry of education on Tuesday. Chandigarh is the only state or union territory (UTs) to be placed in the Uttam-3 category with an overall score of 766 out of 1,000. The highest achievable grade is called 'Utkarsh', which is for states and UTs scoring more than 90% followed by 'Uttam-1' (81-90%), 'Uttam-2' (71-80%), 'Uttam-3' (61-70%), 'Prachesta-1' (51-60%), 'Prachesta-2' (41-50%) and 'Prachesta-3' (31-40%). Akanshi-1 category is for states scoring 21-30%, Akanshi-2 for 11-20% and Akanshi-3 (up to 10%). "No state or UT has achieved the Utkarsh, Uttam-1 and Uttam-2 grade and Chandigarh is the only one to feature in the Uttam-3 category. No state and UT has figured in Akanshi-1 and Akanshi-2 category," the report said. During the previous assessment, Chandigarh was placed in the Prachesta-1 category, with a score of 739.1, ahead of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu (683.2) and Delhi (675.5). The grading index assesses states and UTs across six broad domains - learning outcomes and quality, effective classroom transaction, infrastructure, facilities and student entitlements, school safety and child protection, digital learning, and governance processes. Instead of assigning conventional ranks, it groups states and UTs into performance grades based on their overall scores. Chandigarh's strongest performance was in governance processes - administrative systems, monitoring mechanisms and implementation of school level initiatives - where it scored 71 out of 84 and was the only state or UT to achieve the Uttam-1 grade. The UT scored 184 out of 290 in learning outcomes, 77 out of 90 in effective classroom transaction, 39 out of 51 in infrastructure, facilities and student entitlements, 27 out of 35 in school safety and child protection, 39 out of 50 in digital learning and 71 out of 84 in governanceprocesses. While Chandigarh topped the overall index, it did not lead in every domain. Punjab emerged the best performing state in learning outcomes, Kerala and Puducherry performed best in access, Delhi, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu were among the top performers in equity, while Kerala and Lakshadweep led in teacher education and training. Chandigarh's distinction lay in maintaining consistently high standards across multiple parameters rather than dominating a single category. Director school education (DSE) Nitish Singla said the latest grading reflects sustained improvements in school administration, classroom practices and digital initiatives. He, however, said improving learning outcomes would remain the department's priority. "There is still scope for improvement in learning outcomes, and we will be working on it," he said. The UT's education department caters to nearly 1.35 lakh students through 111 government schools, seven privately managed aided schools and a large network of private schools in the city. Officials said initiatives such as regular academic monitoring, teacher training, technology enabled classrooms, school infrastructure upgrades and closer tracking of student performance had contributed to the improved score....