Education Crisis in Punjab
Source: Annual status of Education Report (ASER) 2022 and A Youth Study by CSDS and KAS India.
67 %
Cannot read
Basic level
Students of Std III cannot read Std II level text of Punjabi.
46 %
Cannot Do
Basic Division
students of Std III cannot do basic division Cannot Do Basic Division.
64 %
Retention Rate In
Higher Education
78 %
Dissatisfied with
the Opportunities
We’re on a mission to change this
Our reach and Impact over 6 years
VISION
Transform Punjab into a land of Hope, Courage, and Possibilities.
MISSION
All children in Punjab attain foundational capabilities in an enabling environment.
How can you help?
Quotes by Peter Senge
The author of ‘The Water Of Systems Change’
Making Collective Action commonplace in Punjab
People who keep us going
Our Supporters
People who believed in us
Amit Chandra
Bain Capital
I see Punjab Youth Leaders Program as an exceptional platform for anyone who wants to contribute towards sustainable development of Punjab. The state, as we see it today, suffers from a number of problems and it’s imperative that the youth take charge and work towards building a better future. I am really excited to see how it is shaping.
Lavanya Shrinagesh
CGAIR
I am amazed at the speed with which Sanjhi Sikhiya is moving towards its mission of transforming Punjab. Bringing about a systemic change in education through high potential youth is something that hugely interests us. At Genpact, we have always believed in supporting initiatives that are bold, have the capacity to have a huge impact and are driven by a team with exceptional execution capabilities. We are grateful to be supporting this endeavor since the beginning and will continue to do so.
Sanjay Purohit
EkStep Foundation
The team behind Sanjhi Sikhiya Foundation is a highly committed one and they have a proven track record. I am amazed at the kind of support they have been able to mobilize for their homeland, Punjab, from all across the world in such a short amount of time. We all know education has a lasting impact on society and I’m quite confident that their program on the ground will be able to cause a significant dent in the public education system of Punjab.
Gurmeet Chawla
Master Trust Group
I’m thrilled to congratulate the team on their remarkable journey. From a single school to expanding across four districts in Punjab, the organization’s growth is nothing short of impressive. I recall my involvement in selecting the fellows from the first Cohort, and it’s incredible to see that four of them have evolved into full-time project managers at Sanjhi Sikhiya. Congratulations to you on your work with the World Bank and to be part of the think tank team, and tap on resources wherever you can. You’re doing a great job and best of luck to you all.
Dr. Harmohinder Singh Nagpal
Hartej Hospital, Amritsar
I am very impressed with the social work that Sanjhi Sikhiya is doing, specially for uplifting the education standards in Punjab and really great effort being done by these people. I have seen your enthusiasm, devotion, and dedication towards this mission and I am highly impressed. I congratulate you on your 5th anniversary and may you have many more successes.
S.D.Shibulal
The Shibulal Family Philanthropic Initiatives
I am very happy that I got a chance to visit Patiala and meet all the young fellows from Sanjhi Sikhiya . These young people are full of energy, full of optimism, full of hope; and they are actually taking those to the community, creating leaders within the community who also have a common purpose. I heard the stories of change, the stories of creating reading corner, the stories of creating a school ground, story of a child who is actually in child labour but wanted to study and runs to the school; so I heard all those wonderful stories. I wish them all the best.
Dr Shalini Sarin
India Advisory Group (Climate Group)
I want to congratulate all of you. Kudos to you and three cheers because it is people like you who are going to inspire many more and that’s what we need.You and some of the Young Leaders that I have met are extremely inspiring, and I think we guys, who have worked most of our lives in the corporate world, it warms our heart and I would say that very promisingly. So firstly, of course, your passion, commitment and your inspiring story, but more importantly they are young people who are trying to bring this transformation, so for me nothing could be more inspiring than that. That it is not when you are in your hay days and now you want to give back to society, but you are in the prime of your youth when you want to bring about transformation so that’s really critical. Secondly, there is a need in Punjab. Punjab really is bleeding, it needs it. We have deteriorated our soil due to malpractices in agriculture, we have lost our people due to migration to Canada, Australia, or to drugs. We have reduced or diminished some of the values, as corruption becomes the way of life. I have interacted with a lot of people, I have seen that they don’t see anything wrong in corruption because that has become a way of life. Thirdly, why I like to be associated with you guys, you have a very holistic approach, you are working with a community, you are solving local problems. I loved what one of your YL, Vishal said, “I moved from blame to problem-solving” because I see a lot of youngsters blaming the system and blaming the government. But here you are helping solve problems which are local and mobilising resources to create ownership and empowerment. So this is a wonderful iterative journey.
Chetan Kapoor
Tech Mahindra
I just spent a wonderful day at Sanjhi Sikhiya, visiting some of the villages in Patiala, some of the schools where the organisation has been working for the last few years. What I saw really gladdened me because I could see the change that has been happening in the schools. Thanks to the efforts of Sanjhi Sikhiya and the entire team that has been dedicatedly working to bring about these incremental changes in some of the most difficult schools that we have in our country today. What I also saw was a huge spirit of positivity, a spirit of change, a passion towards giving back to the society, giving back to the community, which is not very easily seen in the organisations these days. My best wishes to the entire Sanjhi Sikhiya team, so keep going with the same zeal, the same passion, and the same spirit, because the journey that you’ve embarked on is not an easy one. It is going to take time before the results start to happen, but I can tell you that with your kind of perseverance, with your kind of passion. The results will surely come. All the best!
Deep Kalra
Make My Trip
I’d like to tell you about the amazing work that PYLP, Sanjhi Sikhiya is doing in Punjab. As most of you would know, Punjab used to be one of the most prosperous states of India and their contributions to the country have been immense in the past. However, over the last couple of decades, the state has been absolutely ravaged by the menace of drugs, and the impact on the youth of drug use, leading to a lot of unemployment, farmer suicides, and even a lot of cancer. PYLP is trying to make a big change at the grassroots level by actually educating the youth by teaching, motivating, and inspiring them. They are working very closely with the government schools, panchayats, local governments, to make this change so that the generation to come, can once again feel the greatness of Punjab and can rebuild the state, and not just flee and run away from the state. So I would really request each one of you to contribute towards PYLP. I’ve been associated with them for the last few years and I’m really happy and pleased to see the efforts that this young team is making.
Jasmeet Nayyar
Nayyar Hospital
Being associated with Sanjhi Sikhiya gives me a sense of deep satisfaction, that at least someone is working for education. I’m associated with Punjab’s education department, I’m retired from there itself. The excitement and dedication with which this young generation is working, hats off to you all. I feel all the schools in Punjab are my own, and where all Sanjhi Sikhiya is working, I would like to give a lot of praise for that and congratulations. God bless you.
In the News
The programme brings together a diverse group of young leaders from across India, united in their mission to revitalise the educational landscape of Punjab.
Gurugram (Haryana) [India], November 7: ANNY, the trailblazing D2C E-Commerce start-up, proudly announces its collaboration with the esteemed non-profit organization, Sanjhi Sikhiya, in a noble mission to enhance the standard of primary education in rural India. ANNY, renowned for its commitment to innovation and societal development, launched an initiative encouraging its customers to contribute to this transformative cause voluntarily.
When youth combines with a burning desire to change the existing systems and create a better, equal tomorrow for everyone, miracles do happen. Proof of this are the many young change makers from across the country who make up the six education start-ups under the EduMentum umbrella
India: Sanjhi Sikhiya, a non-profit organization working towards transforming government schools in rural Punjab has announced the launch of the fifth cohort of its flagship Punjab Youth Leaders Programme (PYLP).
Bengaluru : The Punjab Education Collective working collaboratively to recast the Punjab state into a land of hope, courage and possibilities through systemic education transformation, has been recognized by Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, a sister organization of the World Economic Forum, among the top 5 collective action initiatives in the world at the award ceremony today.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the state of education with the Punjab Youth Leaders (Common Education) and all the BMTs so that the education system of the district could be understood effectively
Catch Shereen Bhan in conversation with Aniket Doegar of Haqdarshak, Osama Manzar of Digital Empowerment Foundation & Simranpreet Singh Oberoi of Punjab Education Collective as part of Digital India Vision 8.0
School education has been massively impacted amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Punjab. After a prolonged break, the state government had allowed educational institutions to reopen in January. However, in the wake of an alarming rise in coronavirus cases, the state has decided to shut the institutions till March 31.
The winners include 25 leaders working across fields like education, agriculture, microfinance, environmental projects & women empowerment in the informal economy.
The EdTech model is designed for self-paced learning through initial assessment, personal feedback, and vernacular content recommendations in alignment with the school curriculum.
The World Economic Forum-backed Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship awarded 16 organizations for their social innovation initiatives from countries like India, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nigeria, USA, France, and UAE. The 25 winners were recognized for their work in fields like education, agriculture, microfinance, environmental projects, and women’s empowerment in the informal economy.
Members of the Punjab Education Collective, which won the Collective Social Innovation Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, talk about how they worked with the state government to provide good education to children in the government schools
