Samagra Shiksha Funds For Tamil Nadu For 2023-24 Cleared, Rs 4,300-Crore Approved For 2024-25: Centre To Parliament – News18

Last Updated:March 26, 2025, 17:03 IST

The written reply by Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (MoS) in the Education Ministry, said, “There are no pending funds up to FY 2023-24 under the schemes of Samagra Shiksha, PM-POSHAN and ULLAS to be paid to the Government of Tamil Nadu. Additionally, the Government…Read More

All Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds to be granted to Tamil Nadu for 2023-24 have been cleared, while a sum of Rs 4,305.66 crore has been “approved” for the state under this scheme for the financial year 2024-25, the Centre told Parliament on Wednesday, debunking the claims made by the state.

The response comes amid the ongoing tiff between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Tamil Nadu and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government on implementing the National Education Policy (NEP).

In February, Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi had stated that his department is yet to receive funds to the tune of Rs 2,400 crore under the SS programme for 2024-25 as well as the last tranche of Rs 249 crore under the scheme for 2023-24. The TN government has repeatedly claimed that the Centre has withheld funds to the state under the SSA for not implementing the PM-SHRI scheme under it. Both the SSA and PM-SHRI schemes are aligned with the NEP.

News18 has reached out to the TN school education minister for a response to the central government’s statement made in the written reply. This story will be updated, once and if, a response is received.

THE ALLOCATIONS

The written reply by Jayant Chaudhary, Minister of State (MoS) in the Education Ministry, said, “There are no pending funds up to FY 2023-24 under the schemes of Samagra Shiksha, PM-POSHAN and ULLAS to be paid to the Government of Tamil Nadu. Additionally, the Government of Tamil Nadu has not signed the MoU for the PM-SHRI scheme despite many requests at the appropriate level.”

Further, the MoS stated that an amount of Rs 4,305.66 crore under Samagra Shiksha, Rs 702.12 crore under PM-POSHAN and Rs 9.20 crore under ULLAS have been approved for the state of Tamil Nadu for the financial year 2024-25.

“Under the National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMSS), funds are not allocated to the state government; instead, the scholarship amount is directly transferred to the beneficiaries’ bank accounts through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode,” the MoS said.

Besides, financial allocation under the SS scheme is based on the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) prepared by the states and UTs based on their requirements and priorities and guidelines issued by the Education Ministry.

WHAT IS SSA?

The SSA is a programme for school education to implement the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009. The 60% of funds contributed by the Centre help in payment of teachers’ salaries, infrastructure and all other major expenses for running state government schools.

The SSA was designed in 2018 by the BJP government, while the NEP was launched in 2020. The SSA was aligned with the NEP in 2021. A draft regarding this alignment was shared with all states, none of whom objected to it then.

In 2022, the PM-SHRI scheme was announced and incorporated under the SSA. The Centre asked the states to confirm their participation in the scheme by signing the MoU, which prompted concerns among several Opposition-ruled states.

The PM-SHRI scheme aims to develop exemplar model schools that provide leadership to other schools in every block in each district across the country. The scheme was announced in the Union Budget 2022, seeking to develop 14,500 PM-SHRI schools across India, which will showcase each of the objectives envisaged in the NEP 2020.