THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The tussle between Kerala and the Centre over the release of funds through the Samagra Shiksha scheme is set to hit the smooth functioning of six residential hostels for Schedule Tribe (ST) boys and one for girls that house close to 400 students.
The hostels managed by Samagra Shiksha-Kerala (SSK) provide both residential and academic facilities to children hailing from sparsely populated, hilly and densely forested areas. The fund crunch has landed their academic future in uncertainty.
The disbursal of Central funds through Samagra Shiksha has been facing disruption since the second half of 2023-24 but the SSK managed to overcome the crisis using the funds provided by local bodies under the elementary education head.
However, with no funds in sight since the beginning of the current fiscal, SSK officials are in a fix on how to keep the hostels running. While the six boys’ hostels, set up in 2018-19, have a combined intake of 300 students, there are 80 students in the facility for girls that was established in 2022. Of these, only the facility for girls functions from its own building; the rest operate from rented buildings.
“The hostels require Rs 2.14 crore annually for functioning. A major portion of the fund is spent on food, rent and the remuneration of teaching and non-teaching staff,” said an SSK official. Since the new academic year began on June 2, the hostels have been functioning at the mercy of the building owners and traders who allow credit for purchase of provisions.
The building owner of the hostel at Marayoor in Idukki that houses 80 students from far-off tribal settlements such as Edamalakudy has demanded the rent due since April, with a 10% hike effective from this year. “We have written to the SSK headquarters but it is not clear when the funds will be released,” an official in-charge of the facility said.
Managed by SSK as part of the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Awasiya Vidyalaya scheme, the hostels function with 60% of funds from the Centre and the rest from the state. According to General Education Minister V Sivankutty, arrears of the central share for 2023-24 and 2024-25 under Samagra Shiksha were Rs 280.58 crore and Rs 513.54 crore, respectively.
The state government has accused the Centre of withholding the funds after it decided against signing the memorandum of understanding for implementing the PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) scheme in the state. It has also decided to take legal recourse to recover the pending central dues.