Shimla, May 20 -- Himachal Pradesh has emerged as one of the top-performing states in school education in the country, securing the third position among states, ranking behind Punjab and Kerala, and sixth overall, including union territories, in the latest Performance Grading Index (PGI) 2.0 rankings for the academic year 2024-25 released by the ministry of education. The hill state registered a major jump of seven positions from its previous overall national ranking of 13th. Its overall PGI score rose sharply by 85.4 points, increasing from 573.8 in 2023-24 to 659.2 in 2024-25. With the improved performance, the state has been placed in the "Prachesta-2" category, the second-highest grade category achieved by any state or UT in the country this year. The PGI 2.0 framework, developed by the department of school education and literacy under the ministry of education, is an evidence-based assessment mechanism aligned with the objectives of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The framework evaluates states and UTs across six domains and 70 indicators using data sourced from central platforms including UDISE+, PARAKH and PM Poshan. Education minister Rohit Thakur said, "Our government is committed to improving quality education and we took a number of steps which are now showing results. The first step which we had taken was a change in mindset and changing work culture. We even fixed accountability which helped improve the rankings of the state." According to the report, Himachal performed strongly in key sectors, securing 90.5% in equity, 86.6% in access, and 80.3% in teacher education and training. The most significant improvement was recorded in the "learning outcomes and quality" domain, where the state's score more than doubled from 54.2 to 117.9, indicating substantial progress in student learning outcomes and academic quality. Scores under infrastructure and facilities also improved from 97.0 to 110.5 points. The District Performance Grading Index (PGI-D) also reflected the state's progress, with 11 out of 12 districts moving into the high-performing "Uttam-3" category. Hamirpur emerged as the top-performing district in the state with a score of 417, while tribal districts including Lahaul and Spiti registered notable progress with a score of 372. Kinnaur remained in the "Prachesta-1" category. Despite the strong overall performance, the report identified governance processes as an area requiring focused improvement. The state scored 45.9 out of 130 in this domain. Education officials said the sharp improvement in PGI 2.0 and PGI-D rankings reflects the state government's continued emphasis on qualitative, inclusive and equitable school education in line with the objectives of NEP 2020....