Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the state is progressing on various indices of education, even as NCP president Sharad Pawar has expressed concern over the state's performance as per a central grading index.

Fadnavis on Sunday stressed Maharashtra is performing well on the education front.

Sharad Pawar has written to the Maharashtra government expressing concern over the state's performance on the grading index.

“Union human resources ministry has released Performance Grading Index 2.0 which shows Maharashtra has slid from the second position to the seventh one. It is very unfortunate that Maharashtra has failed on improving the quality of education,” Pawar stated.

When asked about the issue, Fadnavis said, “The valuation system has used 10 grades. In the first five grades, no state has secured a place. Punjab and Chandigarh are in the sixth grade and Maharashtra is in the seventh one. It means Maharashtra is actually on the second position.” "Excluding Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, Maharashtra is progressing ahead. The situation is not that Maharashtra has slid on these fronts,” he said and claimed a survey for the same was carried out during the tenure of the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (government).

"But who was in power is not important,” the BJP leader added.

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