CHENNAI: As the state and central governments spar over the release of Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme funds, it is the government schools in Tamil Nadu that continue to bear the brunt. The delay in release of funds has halted the self-defence classes for girls in government schools, release of the second installment of maintenance grants and held up the release of salaries for temporary teachers in some schools.
Due to the fund crunch, the school education department is yet to release funds to conduct the three-month self-defence courses for girls in classes 6 to 12 in over 15,000 government middle, high and higher secondary schools.
Under this initiative, students are trained in karate, judo, taekwondo and silambam along with techniques to use everyday objects, such as dupattas, keychains, bags, pens and pencils, for self-defence. Each school is allotted Rs 5,000 per month to pay trainers and provide snacks for the students under the SS scheme at a cost of Rs 19 crore. The programme has now been halted.
The department also allocates annual school grants for the maintenance of all 37,471 government schools across TN. This year, Rs 125 crore was earmarked for the purpose and the first installment of Rs 62 crore was released last July.
‘Fund crunch makes dept hesitant to sanction infrastructure projects’
However, with less than three months left in the academic year, the second installment has not yet been released. Schools receive amounts ranging from Rs 12,500 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on their student strength. These funds are spent on sanitation works, minor plumbing and electrical repairs.
“Last year, funds were released in April, leaving schools with little time to utilise them properly. We have been requesting the department to release the first installment in June and the second in September,” said the headmaster of a government school. Another HM noted that the department is also hesitant to sanction new infrastructure projects like construction of additional classrooms due to the fund crunch.
Meanwhile, some of the temporary teachers appointed in government schools through school management committees lamented that their salaries have been pending for one to three months. “Officials have told us that salaries could not be disbursed due to a lack of funds. Usually our payments come from various sources, including the SS scheme. Since our tenure ends in February, we are worried about our pending salaries,” said a temporary teacher from Chennai.
Teachers also said no training sessions were conducted for them this year, barring a few sessions under the Ennum Ezhuthum scheme for elementary teachers. Officials in the school education department said the government had prioritised strengthening digital infrastructure in schools this year. However, they added that several initiatives might have to be scaled down if central funds are not released.
According to the latest data, the central government allocated Rs 45,922 crore for the Samagra Shiksha scheme, of which Rs 18,711 crore has been released to the states. For Tamil Nadu, a total of Rs 3,585 crore was sanctioned, including the centre’s share of Rs 2,151.59 crore and the state’s share of Rs 1,434 crore for 2024-25. However, no funds have been released to Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal this year.
On Tuesday, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, in a statement, said the state government had formed a committee, headed by the school education secretary, to review the MoU for PM-SHRI schools. Since one of the key conditions for opening PM-SHRI schools is adoption of the three-language policy, the committee said it is against the state’s existing education system.
“We have requested the union government not to link the signing of the MoU for PM-SHRI schools with the implementation of the SS scheme. However, the centre has withheld last year’s pending funds of Rs 250 crore and this year’s allocation of Rs 2,152 crore,” he said.
Major components under the Samagra Shiksha scheme
Quality interventions Rs 1,639.79 crore
Financial support for teachers - Rs 1,001.48 crore
RTE entitlements - Rs 622.51 crore
Access and retention Rs 403.74 crore