Education in Punjab, India

During the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, funding was given by the royal court to the schools affiliated to the various religious communities.

Near the end of his rule in the 1830s, Ranjit Singh also started to encourage the learning of English, for which a Christian teacher was hired in a school in Lahore.

[8] Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was started in 2000s by the government of India to provide free and compulsory education to the children from 6 to 14 years of age.

According to the sources, it aims to "create a nurturing and joyful learning environment in the schools by upgrading infrastructure, enhancing facilities, and integrating a holistic approach to education".

The Indian government has also banned child labour in order to ensure that the children do not enter unsafe working conditions.

[12] However, both free education and the ban on child labour are difficult to enforce due to economic disparity and social conditions.

[12] 80% of all recognized schools at the elementary stage are government run or supported, making it the largest provider of education in the country.

[23] A significant new feature has been the extension of SSA to secondary education in the form of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.

[25] but which was converted into Inclusive Education at Secondary Stage[26] Another notable special programme, the Kendriya Vidyalaya project, was started for the employees of the central government of India, who are distributed throughout the country.

The government started the Kendriya Vidyalaya project in 1965 to provide uniform education in institutions following the same syllabus at the same pace regardless of the location to which the employee's family has been transferred.

The table below shows the gender wise literacy rate of rural and urban areas of Punjab through the years.

The table below shows the percentage of people in Punjab above the age of 5 with the ability to operate computer and internet, from July 2017 to June 2018.