THE baseline survey of students of classes III to V, conducted to assess their learning outcomes in the subjects of Punjabi, English and mathematics, has laid bare poor teaching standards in Punjab’s government schools. The dismal show in the reading and writing of numbers, letters and stories, as also in executing simple division and subtraction exercises, does not bode well for the students’ academic prospects and is a poor advertisement for the state’s school education system. It only portends higher dropout rates and unemployability.

The findings of the survey have made the task tougher for the AAP government’s Mission Samarth. The programme was launched on December 1, 2023, with the well-intentioned aim of improving the state of school education in Punjab. It was inspired by the turnaround witnessed in Delhi schools ever since the Arvind Kejriwal government made ‘education first’ its slogan in 2015 and retained power in 2020 on the strength of its initiatives in the education and health sectors. At the same time, Punjab would gain by scrutinising the gaps in the Delhi plan. For instance, it has neither been able to arrest the trend of even lower middle-class people opting for costlier private education for their kids, nor to appreciably increase the retention rate in state-run schools.

The foremost requirement for the success of Punjab’s mission is an army of dedicated school teachers. Also, funds are needed to upgrade school buildings, laboratories and libraries in the state. It is absolutely imperative to fill teacher vacancies and improve the training programme for the staff. Committed and inspiring teachers can lay a strong foundation for a child’s learning curve and, thus, for the progress of the state.

(This article was first published by The Tribune, India).