Punjab overtakes Kerala in NITI Aayog school education ranking

Punjab has overtaken Kerala to rank No. 1 in the NITI Aayog School Education Quality Index 2026, Education Minister S Harjot Singh Bains said on Thursday, August 06, 2026.

Bains said the achievement marked a historic turnaround for the state. He highlighted the changes in Punjab’s government schools, noting that 882 students from government schools qualified for NEET in 2026, while Punjab has become the first state in the country to introduce Artificial Intelligence as a core subject from Classes I to XII.

In 2022, 8,000 schools had no boundary walls and 4 lakh children were sitting on the floor. “This is the revolution AAP led government promised,” Mr. Bains said.

Participating in a discussion on an education-related resolution moved by MLA Prof. Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, Bains recalled the state of government schools when he assumed office in July 2022.

An initial infrastructure survey found that over 8,000 schools lacked boundary walls, 3,200 had no functional toilets and nearly 4 lakh children were sitting on the floor. Textbooks were reaching schools only in October-November, leaving precious months of the academic session wasted.

“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.

Bains also highlighted his hands-on approach to education administration, saying he has personally visited over 2,000 government schools across every district of Punjab, including border schools, zero-line villages and remote areas.

He said the government’s flagship ‘Mission Samarth’ has emerged as one of India’s largest foundational learning programmes.

Under the level-based teaching model, students are grouped according to their learning ability rather than their grade. The programme aims to ensure that 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,” Bains said.

He added that the programme now covers nearly 12 lakh students and engages over 70,000 teachers annually.

Mr. Bains also pointed to the rise in NEET-UG qualifiers from Punjab’s government schools. The number increased from just 80 in 2021 to 882 in 2026, he said.

According to Mr. Bains, the results 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, while 17 students did so in Dinanagar.

“These are not private coaching numbers. These are our sarkari schools,” he added.