Centre disbursed ₹10,443 crore to T.N. under Samagra Shiksha in six years

With a Parliamentary Standing Committee recently recommending that the Union government immediately release funds under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) to Tamil Nadu, it has come to light that since 2018, the Centre has released over ₹10,443 crore to the State under the scheme.

According to the response to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the last instalment of funds that Tamil Nadu received from the Union government under the SSA was in the financial year 2023-24 — ₹1,871 crore. Since then, the Union government has withheld its share of ₹2,152 crore as Tamil Nadu refused to accept provisions of the National Education Policy, 2020.

The project approval board has allocated ₹3,586 crore under the SSA for 2024-2025 to Tamil Nadu.

In 2018, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan was renamed and merged into the SSA. For 2018-19, the Union government disbursed ₹1,474 crore to Tamil Nadu and in 2023-24, the State received ₹1,871 crore under the scheme — a 26% increase in five years.

In March this year, the State decided to bear the Centre’s share of ₹2,152 crore, which the Union government had withheld. The funds are used for paying salaries, teacher training programmes, reimbursing private schools under the Right to Education Act, and school infrastructure maintenance and transportation, among others.

The halt in funding was also due to the Tamil Nadu government reportedly refusing to implement the three-language formula stipulated under the NEP, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) pertaining to the establishment of PM-SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India).

Earlier this month, a Parliamentary Standing Committee had observed that withholding funds under the SSA due to non-agreement on MoUs for separate schemes such as the PM-SHRI was “not justifiable.” It recommended that the Union Ministry of Education immediately release the pending funds under the SSA to the State.

P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu, said, “The State and the Union government have the responsibility to provide free education to children. It is a fundamental right. The government is violating the right by withholding the funds… The delay affects the educational development of a child…”