As many as 3.64 lakh students have shifted from private to government schools in Punjab since 2022, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains claimed while presenting the state government’s four-and-a-half-year report on school education.Bains said the state had invested Rs 2,300 crore in school infrastructure and claimed Punjab had surpassed Kerala to rank first in school education in the NITI Aayog Report 2026-27.He attributed the improvement to the government’s focus on strengthening public schools since it assumed office in March 2022. He said the government has constructed 13,920 toilets, distributed nearly two lakh desks and built more than 9,000 classrooms and laboratories. Over 10,000 interactive panels have also been installed, while 5,012 schools have received advanced computer laboratories. All government schools have been equipped with Wi-Fi, while 99.9 per cent have boundary walls, he said.Highlighting academic achievements, Bains said 786 government school students qualified for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and 2,166 for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) over the past four years. NEET qualifiers from government schools increased from 80 in 2021 to 882 in 2026. He added that 361 students qualified for the JEE Main, with 64 clearing the JEE Advanced.