‘Not justified’ to withhold SSA funds over PM SHRI schools: Parliament panel

NEW DELHI: The parliamentary standing committee on education has raised a strong objection to the union government’s withholding funds from states which have not signed MOUs for establishing Pradhan Mantri School for Rising India (PM SHRI schools). The panel has stated it is not “justified” to withhold the Samagra Siksha Abhiyan Funds (SSA), as these are given to states for fulfilling the targets of the Right to Education Act 2009 (RTE), which is a central law.

The Narendra Modi government has withheld SSA funds from three states – Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal – as they have not signed agreements for setting up model PM SHRI schools.

The committee has also stated that the PM SHRI scheme should be for schools other than Kendriya Vidyalayas (KV) and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV).

The panel headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh also recommends extending the RTE Act’s purview to cover children up to 18 years of age. At present, it guarantees education till age 14 or Class 8. The parliament panel’s report, published today, states that the “current policy framework to achieve the NEP’s goal of universal secondary education by 2030 is grossly insufficient. Along with the RTE Act the committee also recommends that the PM POSHAN scheme of providing hot cooked meals should be extended to cover students up to 18 years of age. The NEP is the National Education Policy.

Also read Centre owes Maharashtra 68% of its share in mid-day meal funds, 42% for SSA

The 363rd Report on Demands for Grants 2025-26 of the Department of School Education & Literacy, presented in the parliament on Wednesday, also highlights the need for better utilisation of funds under the SSA scheme and recommends that the central government should monitor teacher recruitment in states as well as arrest the trend of “contractulisation”.

PM SHRI and withholding of SSA funds

The union government has withheld over Rs 1,000 crore to West Bengal, Rs 859.63 crore to Kerala, and Rs 2,152 crore to Tamil Nadu. The central government and the Tamil Nadu government have been at war of words over the issue on the first day of the second leg of parliament’s budget session.

“The committee also notes that 33 out of 36 States/UTs have signed the MoU for PM SHRI and are implementing the scheme and developing NEP exemplar schools, so as to create an equivalence in assessment and curriculum at the national level. The committee, therefore, recommends the department to resolve the issue amicably with the states governments concerned and release the pending funds on priority basis,” it added.

The committee adds that the reason for withholding funds is not “factual or justified”.

“The SSA predates PM SHRI and is intended to help states to achieve the targets of the RTE Act. The RTE is a law duly passed by Parliament and confers education as a fundamental right onto every child. The SSA, as a scheme that enforces the fundamental right-based RTE, cannot be bypassed by the NEP, which was an executive policy statement. The withholding of funds is severely impacting teachers’ salaries, RTE reimbursements, and transportation for students in remote areas,” the report adds.

The committee has also stated that states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have demonstrated strong educational outcomes with a Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), significantly above the national average.

It recommends that the department re-evaluate SSA funding allocations and ensure that none of the states are placed in disadvantageous positions for not accepting NEP 2020 or the PM SHRI Scheme. It also recommends the department to ensure an objective, need-based model to ensure “equitable fund distribution” across states.

Overall the committee recommends that the central government should increase its share as percentage of GDP spending on education and to maintain consistent trends in expenditure on education as envisaged in NEP 2020.

PM SHRI school functioning

The panel states that PMSHRI should also be extended to average schools by relaxing the norms.

It states: “The ministry cannot afford to concentrate resources on improving the top performing schools alone. The first step in this regard would be to exclude the KVs and JNVs from the scheme since as schools run by the union government, they should automatically be resourced and organised along the lines of the NEP rather than needing additional support to do so”.

The panel has stated its observation regarding these schools following the visit of a school in Guwahati.

“The Committee observed that schools witness higher enrolment of students after being given the status of PM-SHRI. This can have negative effects on the quality of education since the number of teachers remains the same. PM-SHRI funds are largely for infrastructural upgradation and schools are unable to use them to hire teachers. The Committee, therefore, recommends that norms for selection of PM SHRI schools in the country should be relaxed to accommodate at least 2 PM SHRI schools per block in the district based on the population density and number of students to reduce burden on specific schools and to accommodate students from every section of the society in these exemplar/model schools,” it added.

There are also concerns expressed on the budget utilisation for the scheme.

“The Committee observes that actual utilization of Rs 2,186.42 crore as on 18th February, 2025, against the BE 2024-25 of Rs 6,050.00 crore and reduced allocation at RE 2024-25 of Rs 4,500 crore is very meagre. The Committee is compelled to note that utilization of allocated funds is very poor and the department was able to utilize only 30.36% of the total allocation in BE 2023-24 and 36.13% (as on 18th February, 2025) of the total allocation made in BE 2024-25,” the report adds.

Extension of RTE Act

Evaluating the central scheme, primarily the SSA, which is a scheme to achieve universalisation of education, the committee recommends the extension till the age of 18 years. The RTE Act for now covers 6-14 years of age.

“Apart from the mere existence of secondary schools, there is no rights-based entitlement, nationwide policy, and monitoring mechanism to ensure minimal drop-outs and 100% retention of students from primary to secondary school. Accordingly, to give teeth to the NEP’s vision of universal secondary education, the RTE must be amended to extend the right to education until the age of 18.A set of clear entitlements must be identified, a protocol must be put in place to prevent dropouts, and norms must be established on the setting up of secondary schools,” the report added.

As per the data provided by the department of school education the GER at elementary, secondary and higher secondary levels have shown declining trends during 2023-24 in comparison to 2021-22 and 2022-23. The GER at primary in 2023-24 was 91.8%, while it was 100% two years earlier and 93.9% after that. At secondary and higher secondary the 2023-24 GER was 77.7% and 56.6% respectively.

It is also worth mentioning that dropout rates at primary, upper primary and secondary levels are higher than that of 2021-22. In 2023-24 the dropout rate for primary was 1.9% as against 1.5% in 2021-22, at upper primary 5.2% as against 3% and at secondary it was 13.7% as against 12.6% in 2021-22.

The panel also highlights that there still remains 11.7 lakh children across the country who are Out of School (OoSc).

“The Committee is of the view that this is partly because there is no proper mechanism to ensure that these children are retained in school. Section 4 of the RTE Act, 2009 primarily focuses on a ‘curative/rehabilitative approach’ in the form of bridge courses, etc., after the child has dropped out for several months – there is no protocol for timely preventive action by authorities to retain children in schools. This absence of a preventive protocol is incompatible with the concept of a Fundamental Right,” the report adds.

Teachers vacancy at 9 lakh

“The committee notes that this continuous process of recruitment of permanent/regular teachers has almost been stopped and recruitment of contractual teachers is being opted by the state/UT governments during recent years which would have adverse impact on overall school education. The contractual appointments of teachers undermine the constitutional provision of reservation in government jobs to SC, ST, OBC, EWS, PwD et,” added the report.

It wants the school department to seek data from the State/UT governments and maintain it centrally.

“The department should proactively monitor filling up of vacancies of teachers in SSA funded schools by respective State/UT Governments in a time bound manner in the best interest of school education and millions of children studying in these schools. The committee further recommends that recruitment process and joining of teachers should be ensured in a time bound manner i.e. within six months from the date of advertisements for filling up of the vacancies ,” the report added.

The panel also states that the department has not taken into cognizance the recommendation of the committee in its 349th report on demands for grants 2023-24.

“The committee recalls that the department had informed during examination of DFG 2023-24 that there were 9,86,565 vacancies of teachers against sanctioned strength of 62,71,380 at the State level out of which, 7,47,565 posts at elementary level. 1,46.334 at secondary level and 92,666 at higher secondary level were vacant, as on 31 December 2022. However, the Committee was informed by the Department during its meeting on 7th January, 2025, that there are 9,82,662 vacancies of teachers in schools of States/UTs funded under SSA which shows that the department and the States/UTs Governments have not taken any cognizance of the recommendation of the earlier committee,” stated the report.

It has asked the department to fill the positions in a time bound manner and latest by the end of current calendar year i.e. 2025.

PM POSHAN: Mid-day meal extension

Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme, under which one hot cooked meal is served to students studying in BalVatika and Classes l-VIII in Government and Government aided Schools on all school working days.

The committee acknowledges that the scheme has contributed significantly to school enrollment and attendance, but points out certain gaps.

“The scheme remains incomplete in coverage and lacks effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure meal quality etc.Additionally, adolescent malnutrition continues to be a concern, as students in secondary and senior secondary schools are excluded from the program. Strengthening nutritional support will directly impact student performance and retention. T

The panel hence recommends expansion of PM POSHAN to secondary education for students up to Class 12, with a focus on preventing adolescent dropouts and addressing gender disparities in nutrition.

“This is a natural corollary of the Committee’s recommendation to extend the RTE until the age of 18,” it adds.

It also stressed on “breakfast inclusion”. “A national breakfast program should be introduced to combat morning hunger and enhance cognitive performance, particularly in rural and economically weaker sections. This has already been envisioned in the NEP but is yet to be implemented by the department, the panel adds.

The panel also has raised concerns over the utilisation of the funds in the 2024-25.

“The committee observes that Rs 12,467.39 crore were allocated under PM POSHAN at BE 2024-25 which was reduced to Rs. 10,000.00 crores at RE 2024-25 stage. The actual utilization as on February 18, 2025 is only Rs. 5,421.97 crores which is 43.48% and 54.21% of BE and RE 2024-25 respectively,” it adds.