Education in Punjab – An Introduction
Punjab – means the “Land of the Five Rivers” was named by Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. Despites suffering great setbacks during the partition of 1947, Punjab - post independence has made great progress in all economic, social and cultural spheres. It contributes nearly two thirds of the total production of food grains and a third of the milk production of the country. Punjab is the pioneer of the Green Revolution of the nation. The culture of Punjab has its own unique fragrance which is unmatched. As per 2011 census the population of Punjab was 27.7 million, of which the male population was 14.64 million and female population was 13.10 million. The literacy rate of Punjab was 75.84%, of which the male literacy is 80.44% and female literacy is 62.52%. The sex ratio of Punjab was 895 females per 1000 males, which is much below the national average of 940.
School Education in Punjab
Read about Education in Punjab
Punjab has a very strong primary educational base which in turn strengthens the general education base of the residents of the state. The education is entirely free for children from 6 to 14 years of age as per Right to Education (RTE) Act of 2009. Per the School Education Department, Government of Punjab, as of 2013 there were has 53,003 schools, having 3,23,217 teachers and 1,08,53,239 students. Schools offer mid-day meals to students during the school hours. The schools offering primary and secondary education are affiliated to Punjab School Education Board, Central Board of Secondary Education or Indian School Certificate Examination (ICSE). Some of the schools in Punjab use Punjabi as their medium of instruction. However, most of the ICSE and CBSE schools in the state use English for imparting education. There are 5454 secondary schools, which follow the CBSE board syllabus explicitly. These schools have more than 5,14,304 students who are taught by 16,538 teachers.
Higher Education in Punjab
Punjab Technical University at Jalandhar was established was established by an act of State Legislature on 16th January 1997, to promote technical, management and pharmaceutical education in Punjab state at the degree level and above. The University has made good progress and during this Academic Session 2011-12, the University has affiliated 100+ engineering Colleges, 139 Management and Computer Application courses, 37 institutions imparting Pharmacy education, 11 colleges imparting Hotel Management education, 06 Colleges providing Architecture Education and 21 Regional Centre for M.Tech and Ph.D in different branches of Engineering and Management and 01 Regional Centre for M.Pharmacy. More than 2013 Learning Centres of PTU are providing professional education through Distance Learning all over the Country and abroad. Punjab has 386 degree colleges, 14 Biotechnological colleges, 3 Agricultural colleges, 299 Education and Physical Education colleges, 175 Engineering and Architecture colleges, 523 Industrial Training Institutes, 28 Law colleges, 363 Management and Computer colleges, 78 Medical, Ayurvedic, Dental, Homeopathic and Physiotherapy colleges, 326 Nursing colleges 98 Pharmacy colleges and 164 Polytechnics which are affiliated to the various universities in the state. Industry interface and avenues of employment are available due to present of ample industries / industrial houses in the state.
Education in Punjab – Future
The future of education in Punjab has undergone a sea change of late and numerous education institutions of repute have come to existence in the state providing opportune avenues to aspirants.