New Delhi: The cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 27,360 crore scheme for the development of more than 14,500 Pradhan Man tri Schools For Rising India ( PM SHRI ) across the country for the 2022-27 period. The Centre's share in the scheme would be Rs 18,128 crore.
Under the scheme, over 14,000 schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayers as well as those run by state governments and local bodies, will be strengthened to emerge as PM - SHRI Schools, Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Anurag Thakur told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
Prime Minister Narendra Mo di announced the scheme on Teachers Day ( September 5 ) to upgrade and modernise existing schools from amongst those man aged by central and state governments, as well as local bodies.
According to the scheme, each block in the country will have two PM - SHRI schools and grants will be directly disbursed to the school management.
The stakeholders in schools will have the flexibility to use 60 % of the grants as per their customised needs. The government expects the scheme to benefit 187 lakh students.
" PM - SHRI will provide high-quality education in an equitable, inclusive and joyful school environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs, and different academic abilities of children and makes them active participants in their own learning process as per the vision of NEP 2020, " said Pradhan. " These schools will be developed as ' green schools ', incorporating environment-friendly aspects like solar panels and LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management and plas tic free, " he added.
Water conservation and harvesting, the study of traditions and practices related to the protection of the environment, climate change-related hackathons and awareness generation to adopt a sustainable lifestyle will also be included.
According to education ministry officials, PM - SHRI schools will be selected through a three-stage challenge in which they will compete for support to become exemplary schools. Geo-tagging of schools for the selection and monitoring of PM - SHRI schools will also be done, they said, adding an expert committee will be set up for the selection of schools.
