Panjab Partners With World Bank for Education Reform; Reality Differs on Ground

March

2026

Panjab has secured a USD 373M investment from the World Bank to overhaul its public education system. Panjab will now launch the second phase of its Sikhya Kranti (Education Revolution) reform. The six-year initiative, Punjab Sikhya Kranti 2.0, aims to pivot the state's schools towards global standards. The funding represents one of the largest educational investments in the region's history. However, an investigation found that out of the 31 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) with school-going children, including six state ministers, only one—Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana of Maur constituency, Bathinda district—is sending his children to study at a government school in 2025–26. During the state elections in 2022, reforms in education through its Sikhya Kranti initiative was one of AAP’s key promises. AAP promised to transform government schools into equitable and inclusive learning institutions. While there has been significant progress in learning levels in schools, with Panjab performing better than the national average in almost all parameters, the bias against government schools is clear. The AAP MLAs cited a range of reasons for not sending their children to government schools which amounted to an indictment of their own system—limited opportunities, quality gaps with private institutions, social or family pressure, lack of exposure to English, and reluctance to shift children to the state education board. Five non-AAP MLAs who were interviewed alleged that there was a shortage of teachers in government schools, and dismissed Sikhya Kranti as a scheme ‘only on paper’. They also objected to the government’s decision to change the medium of instruction from English to Panjabi in 2025. Additionally, the Department of School Education has directed government teachers to register as enumerators for the state’s Drug and Socio-Economic Census. The census will begin on 5 Apr and will cover every household in the state to identify the number of drug users and the types of substances being abused. However, the teachers criticized the move and flayed the government for imposing ‘non-academic’ work. Teachers had earlier also protested a similar move by the state government (earlier coverage).