The Punjab state government announced in the assembly on Wednesday that, by March, no government school in Punjab will have a single or no teacher. Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains stated that, out of the 20,000 state-run schools, 3,500 were either lacking teachers or operating with only one teacher before the current administration took charge in March 2022. Bains assured that the number of such schools has now reduced to less than 600. He emphasized that Punjab aims to become the first state in the country with no school lacking a teacher or having only one teacher by March.
In response to a question from Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi regarding reservation policies in private schools, the minister clarified that there is no such policy. He also highlighted that all 20,000 government schools will be equipped with WiFi by March, with 4,000 schools already having the system installed. Additionally, the government is in the process of setting up 10,000 new classrooms.
Bains affirmed that free and quality education is provided to students of all classes in government and government-aided schools as per the Right to Education Act. He further addressed a question on Schools of Eminence, stating that 117 government senior secondary schools are proposed to be converted into Schools of Eminence. One such school in Amritsar has already undergone this conversion in March 2022. The government plans to utilize excess land available in these schools for construction without acquiring new land, allocating Rs 204.80 crore in the 2023-24 budget for this initiative.
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