Three states reject PM-SHRI scheme, government halts the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan fund

The Union Ministry of Education has halted payments to Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal for the flagship school education program, the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), due to their refusal to participate in the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI) scheme.

The scheme has a budget of more than ₹27,000 crore for the next five years. The Union government is expected to bear 60% of the financial burden, and the remaining 40% is on states.

The scheme has been launched with the aim of transforming at least 14,500 government schools into "exemplar" institutions to demonstrate the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

States must confirm their involvement by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Education.

Five states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal, are still left to sign the MoU. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala have expressed their desire to sign the MoU, Delhi, Punjab, and West Bengal have rejected it, causing the government to suspend their SSA funds.

The remaining three states are still waiting for the third and fourth installments of SSA funds for the October-December and January-March quarters of the previous fiscal year, as well as the first installment for the April-June quarter of the current fiscal year. This triggered them to send repeated letters and reminders to the Union Ministry requesting the release of pending funds.

According to state government authorities, Delhi is expecting approximately ₹330 crore, Punjab close to ₹515 crore, and West Bengal more than ₹1,000 crore for the three quarters. The Union Ministry of Education did not react to concerns about the fund halt or the pending amounts requested by the states.

According to a senior official of the Union Ministry, states cannot continue to receive funds under the SSA without implementing the PM-SHRI plan, which is part of the program.

Delhi and Punjab declined to participate since the two states, administered by the Aam Aadmi Party, already have a comparable plan for exemplar schools called "Schools of Eminence." West Bengal opposed adding "PM-SHRI" to their school names, especially as the states contribute 40% of the expense.

Education Minister of West Bengal Bratya Basu and Education Secretary Manish Jain are believed to have submitted letters to the Union Ministry of Education for the release of SSA funds. The Delhi government has also reportedly written to the Union government.

Documents also show that the Union government and Punjab government have exchanged at least five letters since July 2023. This includes a letter from Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, in which he requests that the state government participate in the project and the state reiterates its decision to pull out of the scheme.

Punjab had first decided to implement PM-SHRI. It signed an MoU in October 2022, and schools to be renovated were designated, but the state later pulled out. On March 9, Pradhan wrote to Mann, alleging that “Punjab has unilaterally opted out of the PM-SHRI scheme, contrary to the terms stipulated in the signed MoU.”

The education secretary of Punjab, Kamal Kishor Yadav, reiterated to the union government that the state did not want to participate in the initiative. He said the state was already implementing its own schemes like "Schools of Eminence," "Schools of Brilliance," and "Schools of Happiness," which would be linked with the NEP.

Meanwhile, Punjab education department officials have been mailing letters over delayed SSA funding. In a letter dated January 18, Vinay Bublani, the Samagra Shiksha state project director of Punjab, wrote to Vipin Kumar, the joint secretary of the Union Ministry of Education, demanding the release of funds "so that balance payments and specific goals could be achieved on time." Mann also wrote to Pradhan on March 27, stressing that the "matter was becoming serious as well as the non-release of funds, which has halted basic activities in schools.".

Yadav wrote to his union government colleague Sanjay Kumar on March 5 stating, “There is currently no balance in the Single Nodal Account of Samagra Shiksha, so payments for some activities, including employee salaries, are pending.”

The financial pressure is also felt in Delhi, where SSA funds are used to pay salaries for around 2,400 teachers working in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) primary schools and 700 staff members working on the Samagra Shiksha initiative.

"The state government provided approximately ₹200 crore of the sum due from the two payments in the past academic session. Salaries were then handled accordingly. However, since April 1, teachers' and staff pay has been delayed. These funds are also used to offer textbooks and clothing to students at government schools, as well as to help differently abled children, said a Delhi official.

Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said that “every effort was made to resolve this issue amicably, but with the government holding state funds, it appears it will be difficult to pay salaries in the coming months.”

"They are not even making new schools but only revamping ones that are already well established. The primary objective appears to be to break into the state's educational sector by writing PM-SHRI on the board. We support PM-SHRI if they build new schools," Bains continued.