Overview
- The Project Approval Board, in a meeting held on May 16, recorded a 9% fall in Punjab government-school enrolment for 2025-26 to 17.34 lakh students, a drop of about 1.76 lakh from 2024-25.
- The steepest decline was in Bal Vatikas where pre-primary enrolment fell from 1.62 lakh to 1.11 lakh and overall mid-day meal coverage in Punjab dropped to 13.66 lakh children with about 21% of enrolled students missing meals.
- PAB approved a ₹352 crore budget for Punjab for 2026-27 with specified central and state shares for feeding 14.5 lakh students while directing state officials to pinpoint causes such as absenteeism, weather closures or operational shortfalls and to act.
- The board gave state-specific operational advice after finding implementation issues in other jurisdictions too, telling Goa to improve transport payments, complete biometric Aadhaar checks and update MIS monthly, and asking Chandigarh to explain its enrolment and coverage falls.
- Reduced enrolment and fewer meal days — Punjab served meals on 218 of 245 approved days and cited a May heatwave and August floods — could worsen child nutrition locally and may change how central assistance is computed if states do not restore coverage.