CHANDIGARH: After a two-month-long standoff between the AAP-led Punjab government and the BJP-led central government, the state has agreed to implement the PM-SHRI project. As part of this, 233 government schools in Punjab will now be renamed with the prefix Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM-SHRI).
The state will also receive Rs 500 crore under the Centre's Samagra Shiksha program to support the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. These funds were previously withheld by the Centre.
Sources said that Education Secretary KK Yadav on Monday issued a letter in this regard. Now in the first phase, 233 government schools have been selected by the union government for upgradation under PM-SHRI project which aims to showcase and implement the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020. Thus soon the state government will get the first installment in the regard from the centre.
As per a memorandum of understanding signed between the state and central government, Punjab was to implement the PM-SHRI project but it refused to do so. Then many letters were written by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the CM also reminded the union minister of the funds of the state withheld by the centre under Samagra Sikhsha. Then the state government and CM Mann were told that the state government could not backstep as it had already signed a MoU with the centre. Then the state government told the union government in July that it has `reconsidered its decision’ and is ready to implement the central scheme.
The state government has refused to implement the PH-SHRI as it had it’s own "Schools of Eminence" and "Schools of Happiness’’ projects.
Sources further said that the state government was not in a condition to pay the salaries of its teachers if the funds under the Samagra Sikhsha project did not come in the near future.
The Samagra Sikhsha scheme for school education covers the basis expenses of government schools across the country from pre-school to Class XII the salaries of teachers, uniforms, books and construction of new classrooms in 60:40 ratio (as 60 per cent paid by the central government) if the centre does not pay it’s share it becomes impossible for the state government to run government schools smoothly.
The PM-SHRI project has a total budget of Rs 27,000 crore for the next five years (60:40 ratio) aimed to upgrade 14,500 government schools across the country where the National Education Policy, 2020 (NEP) would be implemented in true spirit and students be taught the values of Bharat, Indian languages, unity and diversity, `Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat’.
This development comes after the Punjab government agreed to rename nearly half of the Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) in the state. Additionally, the photo of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will be removed from the facade of these clinics.