MP urges Centre to release funds for Tamil Nadu under Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan

CHENNAI: DMK MP P Wilson urged the Union govt to release the funds for Tamil Nadu under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan immediately. The MP posed queries in this regard in the Rajya Sabha.

In a written reply to his queries, Union minister of state for education Jayant Chaudhary said the ministry’s project approval board (PAB) approved Rs 4,305.66 crore for Tamil Nadu under the scheme for the financial year 2024-25.

Chaudhary said every state/Union territory was required to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Union education ministry. So far, 33 states/Union territories signed the MoU and were onboarded on the scheme platform.

Tamil Nadu also gave an undertaking on March 15, 2024, to sign the PM SHRI MoU before the beginning of the academic year 2024-25.

After receiving the undertaking, the department of school education & literacy sent a draft MoU under PM SHRI to Tamil Nadu. However, Tamil Nadu responded with a modified MoU wherein a key paragraph referring to the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in its entirety was dropped. Thereafter, the state govt was repeatedly requested to sign the MoU without any modifications, Chaudhary said.

The transfer of the subject ‘education’ from the state list to the concurrent list by the 42nd amendment of the Constitution resulted in the sharing of responsibilities between the Union and state/UT govts on matters related to education. This also enabled the Union govt to support varying demands of different states/UTs, which are at different levels of educational development, and to take measures for the development, promotion, and growth of education in the country, Chaudhary said.