Kerala will implement PM-SHRI, but only if Centre keeps out of curriculum

The UDF government will continue with the Prime Minister's School for Rising India (PM-SHRI) project in Kerala. Chief Minister V D Satheesan, however, qualified the policy decision by stating that it was being done not out of conviction but compulsion.

"The former (LDF) government has already entered into an agreement with the Centre, and we are part of PM-SHRI. Also, a part of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds has also been received," the CM said at his post-cabinet briefing here on Wednesday. The disbursal of nearly ₹1200 crore SSA funds were made conditional on Kerala signing the PM-SHRI agreement. 

Satheesan said after the LDF government became a signatory to the PM-SHRI scheme, Kerala had received ₹207 crore of the blocked funds, in two installments of ₹99 crore and ₹106 crore. Kerala is entitled to nearly ₹1200 crore under the SSA scheme. "This is not a favour bestowed on us by the Centre. It is our right," the CM said, hinting at the economic rationale behind persisting with the PM-SHRI scheme.

Nonetheless, Satheesan said that Kerala would formally inform the Centre that continued cooperation would be based on two conditions. One, the Centre should not interfere in the curriculum framework. "The State is the competent authority to devise the curriculum in Kerala schools," the CM said. Two, Kerala government will pick the schools where the PM-SHRI scheme is to be implemented.

He said an official communication detailing the conditions and the ideological reasoning behind them would soon be submitted before the Centre. A three-member Cabinet Sub-Committee with General Education Minister M Samsudheen as the convenor has been formed to draft the communication. The other members are: Higher Education Minister Roji M John, Tourism Minister P C Vishnunath and Excise Minister M Liju.

The Chief Minister also said that the previous LDF government had not sent any official letter to the Centre saying it had put the PM-SHRI agreement on hold. The LDF government had in November 2025 claimed that it had informed the Centre that it was keeping the agreement in abeyance. 

The then General Education Minister V Sivankutty had told the Assembly in February this year that the Centre had not responded to Kerala's letter asking that the agreement be put on hold.

Satheesan said the UDF had opposed the PM-SHRI agreement while in the opposition because it was signed by the then Chief Minister and the Education Minister in a stealthy manner and after years of ideological posturing. "They were so vehemently opposed to the deal all along and then went on to secretly sign the agreement, keeping even the other Cabinet members in the dark," Satheesan said.

Kerala had signed the MoU with the Centre on October 16, 2025, without prior Cabinet approval or consultation with the LDF partners, including the CPI. It was a minor revolt mounted by the CPI that eventually forced the Pinarayi government to at least publicly state that it had backed out of the deal. 

The MoU was signed by K Vasuki on behalf of the state government and Additional Secretary Dheeraj Sahu for the Centre. State Education Department Additional Secretary Dr S Chithra and Samagra Shiksha Kerala Director Dr A T Supriya, along with two central officials, were witnesses.

The ideological objection to PM-SHRI is that it encourages the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which both the LDF and UDF argue would impose the education agenda of the Sangh Parivar on schools in Kerala.

The CPM, for instance, had said the NEP wanted to promote "irrationality in thought and action" and "obscurantism and unscientific thinking."

PM-SHRI's objective is to qualitatively strengthen the existing schools and flaunt them as "exemplars" of the NEP 2020. The plan is to upgrade 14,500 schools in India as PM SHRI. Maximum two schools (one Elementary & one Secondary/Senior Secondary) will be selected per block/urban local body across India.