Kerala govt signs MoU to join PM SHRI scheme despite CPI objection

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday to join the central government’s PM SHRI scheme. The agreement was signed in New Delhi by Kerala's General Education Secretary K Vasuki and officials from the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education (MoE), Government of India.

The MoU was signed despite strong objections from the CPI, a key ally in the ruling LDF, and is expected to strain relations within the ruling coalition. CPI State Secretary Binoy Viswam had earlier expressed concerns that Kerala's unique political approach could be compromised by joining the scheme.

However, General Education Minister V Sivankutty, who supported joining the scheme, had said that it was the only way to secure the Centre’s ₹1,500 crore share, which is pending for various educational programs in Kerala.

Although the CPM and the Education department had initially agreed to participate in the PM SHRI project, the government was forced to withdraw twice due to strong objections from the CPI. The issue was raised again during the latest Cabinet meeting, but both Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Education Minister Sivankutty refrained from responding, stating that it was not on the meeting’s agenda. No consensus was reached within the Cabinet, and the decision to sign the MoU was not discussed within the LDF.

The CPI plans to discuss the issue at its state secretariat on Friday to decide on its next course of action following the government's move.

By signing the agreement, Kerala would automatically agree to two key conditions that it had reservations about. First, Kerala will implement all provisions of the National Education Policy (NEP) – 2020 in full. Second, selected schools under the scheme will be required to prominently display the PM SHRI logo.

PM SHRI is short for Prime Minister's Schools for Rising India, and its objective is to qualitatively strengthen the existing schools and flaunt them as "exemplars" of the National Education Policy, 2020. The objective of the centrally-sponsored scheme is to have 14,500 PM SHRI schools across the country, and develop them as exemplars of school education. A maximum of two schools can potentially be selected in every urban local body or block.

All schools run by the centre and the state can compete to come under PM SHRI. All Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVS) and Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVS) too, can be part of the scheme. In Kerala, already 33 KVS and 14 NVS - a total of 47 schools - have already become PM SHRI schools since the scheme was rolled out in 2022.

Now that Kerala has signed the MoU, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are the only states in the country that have refused to join PM SHRI. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of PM SHRI - 1888.