Why Punjab, Haryana and Himachal face a test beyond paper leaks

The then AAP-led Delhi government’s perceived success in revamping government schools there resonated with the Punjab voters long accustomed to spending heavily on private schools whose main selling point have been the “English-medium” label. Even today, education remains one of the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government’s key political USPs.

The neigbouring Himachal Pradesh has also traditionally enjoyed an enviable record in school education. It was among the first states in North India to achieve near-universal literacy, with literacy rising from 63.9% in 1991 to over 99% in 2025. Its success rested on early political commitment, geography-adapted systems and strong community ownership.

Founding HP chief minister Y S Parmar was known to trek from village to village, equipped with a typewriter, so he could sanction a school wherever he found a habitation. High male migration boosted female literacy, while parent-teacher associations and panchayats kept teachers on their toes. More recently, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has sought to sustain the momentum by directing deputy commissioners to adopt the government schools.

Patiala, Jul 28 (ANI): Congress MP Dharamvira Gandhi, with party leaders and workers, stages a protest against the Punjab Government over the alleged question paper leak at Baba Farid University, demanding a high-level probe and the resignation of Punjab Education Minister Harjit Singh, in Patiala on Monday. (ANI Photo)

Punjab has continued to bask in the success of its school-focused initiatives. Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains says the state has climbed from 27th place in 2020 to first rank in the NITI Aayog’s Education Quality Report 2026 after the AAP government, he added, raised the education budget by 50%, recruited more teachers and sent them for training to Singapore and Finland. Government school students also topped the 2024 PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan conducted by the NCERT, while the number of NEET qualifiers from the government schools has risen from about 80 before 2022 to 882 in 2026. Punjab has also become the first state to introduce AI as a subject from Class I onwards.

Yet, education is not just a collection of disparate institutions but an integrated pipeline linking schools with competitive exams and universities, which in turn feed the labour market. Any failures at any one stage undermine the entire system.

In Punjab, the Opposition leaders have alleged multiple leaks even as the Mann government denies any pre-exam breach. The latest exam row erupted after police busted an inter-state cheating racket during the pharmacy officer recruitment exam.

Haryana, too, has faced repeated allegations of exam malpractices, while HP’s 2022 police recruitment paper leak eventually led to a CBI probe, more than 170 arrests and the dissolution of the Staff Selection Commission. The Sukhu government has since enacted one of the country’s toughest anti-paper leak laws, with punishments of up to 10-year jail term and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore.

Any paper leak, however small, is an outrage because it erodes common people’s trust in the promise of meritocracy. In these three states, which continue to witness large-scale migration of their youths – Haryana has even set up a bureau to facilitate overseas employment – every paper leak, whether local or national, becomes another push factor.

While these states have invested heavily in schools, higher education has increasingly been outsourced to private universities with gleaming campuses and equally steep fees.

New Delhi, Jul 30 (ANI): BJP workers break the barricades as they protest at Feroz Shah Road near the AAP headquarters, demanding the resignation of Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains over the alleged Punjab examination paper leak, in New Delhi on Thursday. (ANI Photo)

Punjab can count its quality public universities on the fingers of one hand. All the state’s leading public varsities were set up more than five decades ago. Panjab University was established in 1882, while Punjabi University and Punjab Agricultural University were founded in 1962. Guru Nanak Dev University came into existence in 1969. Today, these institutions soldier on despite chronic financial constraints. The explosion of private universities over the past two decades – Punjab is home to 21 such campuses, while Haryana and HP account for 25 and 17 respectively, as per the UGC – has not necessarily led to better educational outcomes.

The problem is not merely rooted in access but also connected with quality. The region has yet to build a robust ecosystem of research, innovation and industry collaboration. India spends about 0.8% of its GDP on research and development, well below most innovation-driven economies. Many universities thus remain teaching institutions rather than the centres of discovery and excellence. More campuses do not automatically translate into more patents, start-ups or globally competitive graduates.

These challenges come at a critical moment. With a median age of about 29 years, India enjoys one of the world’s youngest populations. But demographic dividends are realised only when education leads to productivity. Otherwise, it may become a demographic burden. For Punjab, Haryana and HP, affected by rampant out-migration, the stakes could not be higher.

And then, there is a crisis of unemployability which has been a constant refrain among employers, reflected in shrinking campus placements. For many parents spending heavily on their children’s education, the results of their efforts have increasingly become uncertain. Such is the desperation for jobs that the Haryana government under the previous CM Manohar Lal Khattar attempted to introduce a 75% quota for locals in the private sector through a legislation, with an eye on Gurugram which attracts investment and talent from across the globe. The 2020 law was struck down by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2023.

The National Education Policy (NEP) is now being projected as part of a solution through its greater emphasis on vocational education. But skills alone cannot create start-ups if the ecosystem is not conducive to enterprise. Unless the states become engines of educational reforms, innovation and entrepreneurship rather than merely producers of degree-holders, the gaps between aspirations and opportunities will only widen.

In the final analysis, a paper leak does not just betray a compromised exam – it exposes the gaps between an education system that teaches or tests and one that delivers opportunities. Bridging those gaps, not merely plugging leaks, would mark the real education revolution the states in the region must deliver.