The cabinet approved a Rs 27,360-crore scheme for the development of more than 14,500 Pradhan Mantri 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 14,500 schools, including Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas 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.

PM Narendra Modi announced the scheme on Teachers’ Day (September 5) to upgrade and modernize existing schools from amongst those managed 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 the schools will have the flexibility of using 60% of the grants as per their customised needs. The government expects the scheme to benefit 18.7 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 plastic free,” he added.