Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday said the state has overtaken Kerala to secure the top position in the NITI Aayog School Education Quality Index 2026.
He pointed to the contrast with 2022, when about 8,000 schools did not have boundary walls and around 4 lakh children were sitting on the floor.
Bains said that 882 students from government schools have qualified NEET in 2026, and Punjab has introduced Artificial Intelligence as a core subject from Classes 1 to 12.
“This is the revolution the AAP government promised,” he said, as per the reports from PTI.
Infrastructure Status and Field Review
Speaking during a discussion on an education-related resolution moved by MLA Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra in the Punjab Assembly, Bains referred to the situation when he took charge in July 2022.
An initial survey, he said, showed that over 8,000 schools lacked boundary walls, 3,200 did not have functional toilets, and nearly 4 lakh students were sitting on the floor. Textbooks, he added, used to reach schools only by October-November, affecting the academic schedule.
He said the process has since been advanced, with textbooks now reaching district headquarters by February 15 and being fully distributed by March 31 as reported by PTI.
Bains also said he has visited more than 2,000 government schools across Punjab, including those in border areas, zero-line villages and remote locations.
Learning Programme and Student Outcomes
The minister informed the House that Mission Samarth has become one of the largest foundational learning programmes in the country. Under this approach, students are grouped by learning ability rather than grade level to ensure basic skills in reading, writing and mathematics.
He recalled that during visits in September-October 2022, Class 8 students in some schools were unable to write simple sentences or perform basic arithmetic. These students were then taught using Class 3-level material. He said they are now learning and improving.
The programme currently covers nearly 12 lakh students and involves more than 70,000 teachers annually.
Bains also said NEET-UG qualifiers from government schools in Punjab have increased from 80 in 2021 to 882 in 2026, attributing the rise to the Punjab Academic Coaching for Excellence (PACE) initiative.
(with inputs from PTI)