Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurates 97 new school buildings

NEW DELHI: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, on Tuesday, inaugurated newly-constructed buildings of 97 schools across the state. Along with the new school building, Vijayan also inaugurated three tinkering labs and laid the foundation stones for 12 new schools.

The Kerala government, in a statement, said that these projects were undertaken to follow up on its commitment of ensuring quality education regardless of the socio-economic status of the students.

The new school buildings and tinkering labs were funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), a corporate financial institution set up by the state government for scrutinising, approving and funding major infrastructure projects including public-private-partnership (PPP) projects.

450 schools get face-lift

The new school buildings and tinkering labs were set up with a fund of Rs 182 crore. KIIFB has upgraded infrastructure of over 450 schools already through various plan funds and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) funds, the Kerala General Education Department said, in a statement.

Kerala general education minister V Sivankutty was also present at the event.

The state had earlier announced that it will be spending Rs 1,031.92 crore for programmes under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and Strengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for States (STARS) programme for the year 2023-24.

Kerala will also be setting up 210 skill development centres for school dropouts across the state.