CHENNAI: The fresh allocation of funds approved for Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme by the Ministry of Education’s Project Approval Board (PAB) has dropped by Rs 1,416 crore (34%) from Rs 4,150 crore in 2024-25 to Rs 2,734 crore in 2025-26.
Though the approved allocation last year was Rs 4,150 crore, the committed liability was reduced by the PAB to Rs 3,586 crore. The Rs 2,734 crore allocated for 2025-26 is nearly Rs 850 crore lower than that.
It is, however, noteworthy that the budget proposed to the PAB by the Tamil Nadu government was also lower at Rs 3,104 crore for 2025-26 compared to Rs 4,579 crore proposed in 2024-25, although the state claimed that this was due to “upper limits” imposed by the GoI.
This allocation of Rs 2,734 crore is the lowest for Tamil Nadu in the last five years under the centrally-sponsored scheme in which the centre shares 60% of the annual expenditure while the state bears 40%.
According to the data furnished by the Union Ministry of Education, while states such as Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, and Punjab saw an increase in allocation for 2025-26, states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh saw a decline.
TN spent Rs 980 crore as part of its SS share in ’24-25
The reduction has come even as Tamil Nadu continues its fight for the release of the Union government’s share of Samagra Shiksha (SS) funds for 2024–25, which have been fully withheld. As per the committed liability of Rs 3,586 crore, the Centre was to release Rs 2,152 crore as its 60% share.
It is in pursuit of this Rs 2,152 crore that the state government has filed a suit in the Supreme Court against the Union government.
Chief Minister M K Stalin, while submitting a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Saturday, reiterated the demand to release this amount along with the first instalment of the Centre’s share of the approved Rs 2,734 crore for 2025–26.
A senior official from the School Education Department attributed the reduction to the upper limits set for expenditure under each component of the scheme by the Centre.
“This year, the GoI introduced upper limits for each component, which restricted what we could ask for,” the official said. However, the official did not specify the components or their respective ceilings.
Expenditure under Samagra Shiksha is broadly classified into recurring and non-recurring categories, across three key heads: Elementary, Secondary, and Teacher Education. These are further divided into major components including quality interventions, access and retention, salaries, gender and equity, inclusive education, admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, and teacher education. These components are broken down into several sub-components.
As per last year’s estimates, the three components—quality interventions, salaries, and reimbursement to private schools for admissions under RTE—accounted for nearly 80% of the total allocation.
On this year’s Project Approval Board (PAB) meeting, another official said there was little to review as the Centre had not released funds for the previous year.
He noted that the state bore the full cost of all recurring expenditure, including salaries and the operation of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas. Several infrastructure projects were also completed entirely with state funding.
With no central funds released in 2024–25, the state spent about Rs 980 crore of its Rs 1,434 crore share. The remaining portion could not be spent, especially under non-recurring heads, due to the Centre’s non-contribution.