Spotlight
oi-Oneindia Staff
Claiming a historic turnaround, Punjab Education Minister S. Harjot Singh Bains on Thursday said the state has overtaken Kerala to rank No. 1 in the NITI Aayog School Education Quality Index 2026.
Punjab Education Minister S. Harjot Singh Bains reported Punjab now ranks No. 1 in the NITI Aayog School Education Quality Index 2026, citing improvements like 882 government school NEET qualifiers, AI as a core subject, and foundational learning programs following significant infrastructure upgrades.
While 8,000 schools had no boundary walls and 4 lakh children sat on the floor in 2022, today Punjab has 882 NEET qualifiers from government schools and has become the first state in the country to introduce Artificial Intelligence as a core subject from Classes I to XII. This is the revolution AAP led government promised.
Participating in a discussion on an education-related resolution moved by MLA Prof. Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, the School Education Minister S. Harjot Singh Bains recalled the dire state of affairs when he assumed office in July 2022.
Revealing the findings of an initial infrastructure survey, S. Bains said over 8,000 schools lacked boundary walls, 3,200 had no functional toilets and nearly 4 lakh children were sitting on the floor. Textbooks would reach schools only in October-November, wasting precious months of the academic session.
“Today, for the first time, textbooks reach district headquarters by February 15 and are fully distributed by March 31,” he said, while challenging anyone to verify this from any government teacher.
Emphasising his hands-on governance model, S. Bains stated that he has personally visited over 2,000 government schools across every district of Punjab including border schools, zero-line villages, and remote areas.
He informed the House that the government’s flagship ‘Mission Samarth’ has emerged as one of India’s largest foundational learning programmes. Under its level-based teaching model, students are grouped by learning ability rather than grade to ensure every child masters reading, writing and mathematics.
“When I visited schools in September-October 2022, I found Class 8 students who could not write simple sentences. Some could not do basic addition and subtraction. We identified these students and taught them from Class 3 syllabus level. Today, they are learning and improving,” S. Harjot Bains said, while adding that the programme now covers nearly 12 lakh students and engages over 70,000 teachers annually.
Highlighting a surge in government school students performance, S. Harjot Bains told the House that NEET-UG qualifiers from Punjab’s government schools had jumped from just 80 in 2021 to 882 in 2026. The results, he said, are the direct outcome of the ‘Punjab Academic Coaching for Excellence’ (PACE) initiative.
“For those who see only darkness, here is the light,” Bains said. In Majitha, six students from government schools cracked NEET. In Dinanagar, 17 did. These are not private coaching numbers. These are our sarkari schools, he added.
He singled out Harnoorpreet Kaur, a girl from a humble background who secured All India Rank 3140 in her category. This is the power of government schools today.
Taking on the Opposition, he shot back, “Target me personally if you want. Why are you targeting government schools? A false narrative created by a few negative minds has already driven people away from government schools.”
Confronting criticism over declining enrolment in government schools, Bains said the trend was not limited to Punjab but part of a nationwide pattern post-Covid.
Citing all-India data, he said enrolment across government schools had fallen by 1.76 crore students. “During Covid, enrolment in government schools actually went up. But after that, numbers dropped everywhere,” he said.
Giving examples, S. Bains said Bihar had 2.49 crore students, which came down to 2.13 crore and is estimated to fall further to 1.95 crore this year. In Uttar Pradesh, numbers declined from 4.44 crore to 4.16 crore, with an estimated 4.1 crore this year. Maharashtra saw a drop from 2.32 crore to 2.13 crore.
He also referred to the Government of India’s APAAR ID initiative launched in 2023. “Now every student has a unique ID. Earlier, one child was enrolled in six schools but was not studying in any. That is why the numbers are correcting,” S. Bains said.
The Education Minister detailed that infrastructure works worth ₹2,638 crore have been executed across 19,125 government schools. This year, an additional ₹1,000 crore from the World Bank has been approved for further upgrades.
S. Harjot Bains listed several Schools of Eminence that have been completely transformed. He cited a Ludhiana’s School of Eminence in the name after Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar, which he said was once totally neglected. “Today ₹18 crore is being spent to make it world-class. Seventeen students from that school have already cleared NEET this year,” he said.
The Mann-led Punjab government has been transforming government schools from the last option into the first choice. We are not stopping here. We are aiming higher every year,” he said.
He said teachers will no longer have to seek donations to run government schools.
“We have made ample funds available for schools, unlike previous governments when teachers had to go seeking donations. The era of humiliation is over,” S. Bains said.
