Punjab No. 1 in School Education, 3.64 lakh students shifted to Govt schools since 2022: Harjot Bains
Babuhshahi Bureau
Chandigarh, August 18, 2026: Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains on Tuesday said the Bhagwant Mann government had transformed the state’s government school education system in four-and-a-half years through a ₹2,300-crore infrastructure and reform programme.
Presenting the government’s four-and-a-half-year status report at Punjab Bhawan, Bains claimed that Punjab had surpassed Kerala to emerge as the top-performing state in school education in the NITI Aayog Report 2026-27.
He said 3.64 lakh students had shifted from private schools to government schools since 2022, describing the trend as a reflection of growing public confidence in the government school system.
Bains said the government had invested ₹2,300 crore in school infrastructure over the past four-and-a-half years, with an average investment of around ₹15 lakh per school.
According to him, 13,920 new toilets have been constructed, ensuring functional toilets in every government school, while two lakh desks have been provided so that no student has to sit on the floor.
More than 9,000 new classrooms and laboratories have also been constructed, while over 10,000 interactive panels have been installed in classrooms. As many as 5,012 government schools have been equipped with advanced computer laboratories.
Bains further claimed that all government schools in Punjab now have Wi-Fi connectivity and 99.9% of schools have boundary walls.
The Education Minister said government schools had also been equipped with sports facilities that were earlier largely associated with private institutions. These include swimming pools, shooting ranges, basketball and tennis courts, Kabaddi mats, and wrestling and boxing rings.
He also highlighted teacher training programmes under which multiple batches of principals were sent to Singapore, primary teachers to Finland and headmasters to IIM Ahmedabad.
786 Govt School Students Qualify JEE, 2,166 Clear NEET
Bains said academic outcomes in government schools had also improved significantly.
According to the minister, 786 government school students qualified for JEE and 2,166 qualified for NEET over the past four years.
He said the number of NEET-UG qualifiers from government schools had increased from 80 in 2021 to 882 in 2026. The number stood at 437 in 2024 and 847 in 2025.
As many as 361 government school students qualified for JEE Mains, while 64 qualified for JEE Advanced, he said.
Punjab Introduces AI as Core Subject
Highlighting educational innovations, Bains said Punjab had become the first state to introduce Artificial Intelligence as a core subject from Class I to XII.
He said the Business Blasters programme had provided 2.30 lakh students with practical business experience. The government provided ₹29 crore in seed funding, while students generated ₹3 crore in profits, he claimed.
The government has also opened 40 dedicated skill education schools for students who dropped out after Class 10, with the aim of bringing them back into the education system.
Security, Maintenance Measures Strengthened
Bains said ex-servicemen had been deployed as campus managers in all senior secondary schools. In addition, two security guards have been posted at senior secondary schools with more than 500 students.
Monthly cleaning grants ranging from ₹3,000 to ₹50,000 are being provided to schools depending on their student strength, he added.
The minister said Punjab had introduced free bus services for government school students, benefiting more than 15,000 students every day across hundreds of schools. He also said the government had capped annual school fee increases at a maximum of 5% to reduce the financial burden on parents.
Bains said more than 7,000 schools in Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ropar, Ferozepur and Fazilka were damaged during the floods of 2023 and 2025.
He said the government was working with the World Bank to restore 500 severely damaged schools, with most of the restoration work expected to be completed within six months.
Bains Sets Two-Year Target
Bains said he had personally visited more than 2,000 schools across Punjab and maintained that education remained the government’s top priority.
“I have personally visited over 2,000 schools. No district is left. Education is my passion, this is my obsession. Twenty thousand schools in Punjab and I am on a mission,” he said. He added that the government aimed to ensure within the next two years that not a single school in Punjab lacked essential facilities.
Recalling the AAP’s 2022 electoral promise to improve government schools, Bains said the Bhagwant Mann government had honoured the trust placed in it by the people of Punjab.