Thiruvananthapuram: Under pressure from the central government and due to want of funds, Kerala agreed to implement the PM-Shri (Prime Minister’s School for Rising India) but the withheld dues are yet to be received. With this, the state government that had agreed to sign the PM-Shri MoU has turned defensive. Apart from the left front, the government is also facing criticism from the teacher’s unions, including the Sastra Sahitya Parishad. 

The Independent Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom (DAKF) has also come forward arguing against the state government’s belief that the Rs 1008 crore aid would be lost if the central government’s PM-Shri scheme is not implemented. 

The PM-Shri scheme is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and is under the aegis of Samagra Siksha Abhiyan. Kerala had taken a stand not to implement the PM-Shri scheme owing to its political opposition to NEP. However, since Kerala received aid under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the central government expressed its displeasure over the non implementation of PM-Shri.

Subsequently, in the preceding financial year, the third and fourth instalments of SSK (Samagra Shiksha Kerala), amounting to Rs 167.94 crore was withheld by the centre. Finally, relenting to the central government’s threats, Rani George, the Principal Secretary of General Education, sent a letter to the Union Ministry on March 30, agreeing to implement PM-Shri. It was agreed that the MoU would be signed before the next academic year. However, the central government is yet to clear the SSK dues.

T. Gopakumar, General Secretary of DAFK said that PM-Shri is a project where the central government spends 60 percent of the cost while the state spends 40 percent. From 2022-23 onwards, the central government has set aside Rs 27360 crores for 14500 PM-Shri schools for a period of five years. Accordingly, for the next three years, each PM-Shri school would get an average of Rs 1.13 crore. Of this, Rs 45.28 lakh (40 percent) per school would be spent by the state while Rs 67.93 lakh (60 percent) would be the central share. The state government would thus need to spend Rs 150.59 crore to get the central share of Rs 225.89 crore to implement PM-Shri. DAFK accused that this amount is being wrongly depicted as the central allocation of Rs 1000 crore.