3 Opposition states say no to PM-SHRI, Centre stops school scheme funds

Five states — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal — are yet to sign the MoU. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala have indicated their willingness, Delhi, Punjab and West Bengal have refused, ostensibly prompting the Centre to stop their SSA funds, it is learnt.

The three states have not received the third and fourth installments of SSA funds for the last financial year’s October-December and January-March quarters, nor the first installment for the current financial year’s April-June quarter. This has prompted them to send several letters and reminders to the Ministry for the release of pending funds.

According to state government officials, Delhi is awaiting around Rs 330 crore, Punjab close to Rs 515 crore, and West Bengal over Rs 1,000 crore for the three quarters. The Education Ministry did not respond to questions about the fund stoppage and the pending amounts claimed by the states. A senior ministry official said states cannot continue to receive funds under the SSA and not implement the PM-SHRI scheme, which is a part of the programme.

Delhi and Punjab refused to participate since the two states, ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party, already run a similar scheme for exemplar schools called “Schools of Eminence”. West Bengal opposed prefixing “PM-SHRI” to the names of their schools, particularly since the states bear 40 per cent of the cost.

West Bengal’s Education Minister Bratya Basu and Education Secretary Manish Jain are learnt to have written letters to the Ministry seeking release of SSA funds. The Delhi government, too, is learnt to have written to the Centre.

Documents also show that since July 2023, at least five letters have been exchanged between the Centre and the Punjab government. This includes the one written by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, asking the state government to be a part of the project, and the state reiterating its stand to opt out of the scheme.

Punjab had initially opted to implement PM-SHRI. It signed an MoU in October 2022 and schools that were to be upgraded were identified, but the state later backed out. On March 9, Pradhan wrote to Mann, stating that “Punjab has unilaterally opted out of the PM-SHRI scheme, contrary to the terms stipulated in the signed MoU”.

On March 15, Punjab’s education secretary, Kamal Kishor Yadav, again communicated to the Centre that the state doesn’t want to be a part of the project. He wrote that the state was already implementing its own “Schools of Eminence”, “Schools of Brilliance” and “Schools of Happiness”, which would be aligned with NEP.

Parallelly, Punjab education department officials have been writing letters over pending SSA funds. In a letter dated January 18, Punjab’s Samagra Shiksha state project director Vinay Bublani wrote to Vipin Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Education, requesting the release of funds “so that balance payments and targets fixed could be achieved in time”. Mann also wrote to Pradhan on March 27, saying the “matter was becoming serious (and) non-release of funds has halted basic activities in schools”.

On March 5, Yadav wrote to his central government counterpart Sanjay Kumar, saying, “Currently there is no balance in the Single Nodal Account of Samagra Shiksha due to which payments for some activities are pending, including employees’ salaries”.

The financial crunch is being felt in Delhi too, where salaries for around 2,400 teachers working in MCD primary schools and 700 staffers working on the Samagra Shiksha programme are drawn from SSA funds.

“Of the amount that was due from the two installments in the last academic session, the state government provided around Rs 200 crore. With that, salaries were managed. However, since April 1, salaries have been pending for teachers and staff. These funds are also used to provide textbooks and uniforms to students in government schools, and to support differently abled children,” said a Delhi official.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said that “every effort was made to solve this issue amicably”, but “with the Centre holding state’s funds, it seems it would 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,” said Bains. “The only intention seems to enter the state’s education scene by writing PM-SHRI on the boards. We are all for PM-SHRI if they make new schools.”