Punjab government to implement PM SHRI

The Punjab government will implement PM SHRI, a year after the state's AAP dispensation opted out of the centrally-sponsored scheme. This was stated in a report by PTI.

The Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme aims to upgrade schools as model institutes and encapsulate the spirit of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

This development came to the fore after Union Minister of State for Education Jayant Chaudhary informed the Lok Sabha on Monday, July 29, while replying to a question by Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

In a written reply by Badal, he said, "Now the state of Punjab, on the repeated requests of the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, communicated on July 26 that it would implement PM SHRI."

He further added, "Therefore, there is no logjam between the government and the state government of Punjab over PM SHRI."

Badal had asked if the logjam between the government and the Punjab government over PM SHRI would adversely impact education in the state.

She had also asked if, by opting out of government schemes such as PM SHRI, the Punjab government was depriving the state's people of crucial school upgrades, according to the National Education Policy, 2020.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on July 18 last year opted out of PM SHRI. It had then said that it wanted to continue with its Schools of Eminence project, under which, 117 existing schools for Classes IX to XII were being revamped.

Furthermore, the state government opted out despite signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Education Ministry for the centrally-sponsored scheme in October 2022.

After it opted out, the Centre stopped the release of grants amounting to Rs 550 crore under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the flagship programme for school education.

PM SHRI aims to upgrade 14,500 schools in five years and has a budget of more than Rs 27,000 crore in a 60:40 Centre-state ratio.

Besides this, the Union Cabinet approved the scheme on September 7, 2022, to showcase the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, emerge as exemplary schools, and also offer leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood.

In Punjab, 241 government schools were selected for the scheme.

Under PM SHRI, 34 states and Union Territories (UTs, as well as the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) and the Navodaya Vidyalaya Sangathan (NVS), signed the MoU.