Launched back in 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi the PM SHRI scheme witnessed its first launch later in October in the state of Haryana. Inaugurated by Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the state school education minister Kanwar Pal Gujjar, these four schools are from the earlier opened schools under the SHRI scheme.
These schools follow the National Education Policy (2020) curriculums. It should be noted that these schools are not newly inaugurated ones, but now they come under the PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme. These schools include both co-educational and girl’s schools whose infrastructure will be changed as per this scheme.
As per the permission granted by the Cabinet, a total of 6,448 schools across India are in the process of being upgraded under the PM SHRI scheme.
Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal says that the Centre shortlisted 3,893 schools, based on the state assessment of existing infrastructure, student strength, and accessibility. Out of these schools, 134 schools have been picked to be renovated in the first phase of the scheme. These schools have been noted as better in terms of physical infrastructure and teaching staff.
Model Sankriti schools have not been considered for the scheme, and incidentally, the state has upgraded 67 more Government Senior Secondary Schools (GSSS) to Model Snakriti schools and affiliated them with CBSE too.
As per the statement of Anjana Dhingra, principal of GSS Chakkarpur, “The students currently enrolled at the PM SHRI schools will start studying the CBSE course from their next academic session”. It should be noted that this switch to the new curriculum will not affect the students of 9-10-11-12 classes who are preparing for boards. As it will solely focus on students from 6-8 classes.
Officials said that PM SHRI will work on a year-long developmental program for which schools will get 1 crore of funds each year to improve their teaching-learning process. “The scheme will be implemented from 2022-23 to 2026-27, after which it shall be the responsibility of state/UTs to continue to maintain the benchmark achieved by these schools. The total cost of the project will be Rs 27, 360 crore spread over the five years, in which the Centre’s share is Rs 18,128,” said Sanjay Kumar, secretary (of school education and literacy) in the Ministry of Education.
Students of PM SHRI schools will be provided with the best facilities, including smart classes, better arrangements, improved infrastructure, sports, labs, and other facilities. They can also choose their medium of education from Hindi and English. It has also been decided to use technology to improve the educational structure using ICT-based infrastructure, keeping factors like carbon neutrality and environmental sustainability in mind.
Additionally, each school has been linked to higher education institutions and to the local entrepreneurial ecosystem to provide vocational and internship opportunities to the students. Students are also set to receive counseling for psychological well-being and career building; and their grants include the library, sports maths, and science expenditure.
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