PM SHRI Schools to be Exemplar Schools

The Cabinet has approved a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme named Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI).

These schools will showcase the implementation of the National Education Policy 2020 and emerge as exemplar schools over a period of time, and also offer leadership to other schools in the neighbourhood. The duration of the scheme is from 2022-23 to 2026-27.

PM SHRI School scheme is intended to develop more than 14500 PM SHRI Schools managed by Central government/State/UT Government/local bodies including KVS and NVS in which every student feels welcomed and cared for, where a safe and stimulating learning environment exists, where a wide range of learning experiences are offered, and where good physical infrastructure and appropriate resources conducive to learning are available to all students.

It will nurture students in a way that they become engaged, productive, and contributing citizens for building an equitable, inclusive, and plural society as envisaged by the National Education Policy 2020.

More than 20 lakh students are expected to be the direct beneficiaries of the scheme. The scheme will also promote understanding of various dimensions of Quality of school education and inform Policy, Practice and Implementation. The learning from these schools will be scaled up to other schools in the country.

Major interventions of Scheme of PM SHRI Schools

1. Quality and Innovation (Learning Enhancement Programme, Holistic Progress Card, Innovative Pedagogies, Bagless days, Internships with Local artisans, Capacity building etc.)

2. Beneficiary oriented entitlements under RTE Act. 100% of PM SHRI Schools will receive Science and Math Kits.

3. Annual School Grants (Composite School grants, Library grant, Sports grant)

4. Early Childhood Care and Education including Balvatika and Foundational Literacy and Numeracy

5. Equity and Inclusion including provision of safe and appropriate infrastructure for girls and CWSN.

6. Encouraging flexibility in choice of subjects offered to students.

7. Encouraging mother tongue/local languages as medium of instruction using technological interventions to help bridge language barriers.

8. ICT, smart classrooms and digital libraries for using digital pedagogy. 100% of the PM SHRI Schools will be covered under ICT, smart classrooms and digital initiatives.

9. Strengthening of existing infrastructure

10. Vocational interventions & Enhancing internship / entrepreneurship opportunities especially with local industry. Mapping of skills with developmental projects/nearby industry and developing courses / curriculum accordingly.

11. Saturation approach will be adopted to develop these schools with all modern facilities. Science labs, Library, ICT facility and Vocational labs etc. will be provided to all the schools.

12. Green School initiatives

Further, the scheme envisages convergence with existing schemes /Panchayati Raj Institutions/ Urban Local bodies and community participation for infrastructure upgradation of the school and creation of facilities.

Implementation Strategy

Online portal of PM SHRI schools has already been launched on 03.11.2022. Furthermore, the selection of PM SHRI has been followed by a transparent challenge method, wherein Schools have self-applied on the online portal. Selection is done through a three-stage process with definite time lines, which is as follows: –

Stage-1: States/UTs to sign MoU with Centre laying down the commitments for supporting these schools for achieving specified quality assurance as PM SHRI schools.

Stage-2: In this stage, a pool of schools that are eligible to be selected as PM SHRI Schools has been identified based on prescribed minimum benchmark through UDISE+ data.

Stage-3: This stage is based on the challenge method for fulfilling certain criteria. Only the schools from the above eligible pool of schools compete to fulfil the challenge conditions. Fulfilment of conditions is to be certified by states/KVS/JNV through physical inspection. As the schools are selected through a challenge method, there would not be any predefined state/UT-wise break-up of schools. States/UTs are to recommend the list of schools to Ministry of education for selection as PM SHRI schools.

The total cost of the project is Rs 27360 crore spread over a period of 5 years which includes central share of Rs 18128 crore.

Quality Assurance of PM SHRI Schools

(i) Showcase of NEP 2020

(ii) Student registry for tracking enrolment and learning progress

(iii) Improvement in learning outcomes of each child to achieve levels above state and national average

(iv) Every middle grade child exposed/oriented to cutting edge and 21st century skills

(v) Every secondary grade child passes out with at least one skill

(vi) Sports, Arts, ICT for every child

(vii) Sustainable and Green schools

(viii) Each school linked/connected to Higher Education Institutions for mentoring

(ix) Every school linked/connected to local entrepreneurial ecosystem

(x) Every child counselled for psychological well-being and career

(xi) Students will be rooted to knowledge and heritage of India, proud of civilizational ethos and values of Bharat, aware of India’s contribution to the world, conscious of duties towards society, living beings and the nature, communicatively competent in Indian languages, respecting inclusivity, equality and unity in diversity, sense of service and furthering the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat’.

(xii) Character-building, citizenship values, fundamental duties and responsibilities towards nation-building

These schools will be developed as vibrant schools focusing on all round development of children.