Parliament Question: Assistance provided to Kerala under Samagra Shiksha

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2897 ANSWERED ON 18/03/2026 Assistance provided to Kerala under Samagra Shiksha 2897 Smt. P. T. Usha: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the Central assistance provided to Kerala under Samagra Shiksha and higher education schemes during the last five years; (b) the expansion of IITs, NITs, IIITs, Central Universities and other institutions benefiting students of Kerala; and (c) the achievements in digital education and implementation of the National Education Policy, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) & (b): Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution and most of the schools are under jurisdiction of concerned States & UTs. State and UT Governments are the appropriate Governments under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, and have the responsibility and mandate to provide school infrastructure and other activities in schools in accordance with the norms laid down in the Schedule to the RTE Act, 2009 and as per respective State RTE Rules. Samagra Shiksha was revamped and realigned to implement NEP 2020, and new interventions such as Early Child Care and Education (ECCE), support for NIPUN Bharat, Quality and Innovation at all levels, Equity and Inclusions, Vocational Education, ICT and Digital Initiatives etc. were incorporated in the Scheme. Implementation of Samagra Shiksha is akin to implementation of NEP 2020. Year-wise central assistance provided to the State of Kerala under Samagra Shiksha Scheme. (Rs. in Lakh) Year Central Assistance provided to the State of Kerala 2021-22 22512.79 2022-23 17815.99 2023-24 14165.74 2024-25 0.00* 2025-26 9241.16 * Funds not released due to lack of requisite compliances by the State Govt. of Kerala. Source: PRABANDH & PAB MINUTES.Education being in the Concurrent List, enhancing the quality of education is the responsibility of both the Central and State Governments. Recognizing the need for central assistance, the Department of Higher Education, Government of India, is implementing Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) which is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed at funding specific State government universities and colleges, so as to improve their quality by ensuring their conformity to prescribed norms and standards. The government launched the third phase of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) in June 2023 in the form of Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA), with an outlay of Rs. 12,926.10 crore, including the committed liabilities of the earlier phases of RUSA, to cater to the needs of educationally unserved/ underserved areas. Under RUSA, a total of 160 units have been approved support in the State of Kerala for a total amount of Rs. 565.60 crore. Furthermore, under PM-USHA, 18 units have been approved support in the State for a total amount of Rs. 409.04 crore. Moreover, during the last five years, a Central assistance of Rs. 110.34 crore has been provided to the State of Kerala under the scheme. Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) has also been created for funding Higher Educational Institutions, under the purview of D/o Higher Education. It provides interest free loan to Centrally Funded Higher Educational Institutions (CFHEIs). The Central University of Kerala is undertaking various development works in the University using funds from Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) and allocations from the University Grants Commission (UGC). More than 60% of the students pursuing higher studies at the Central University of Kerala are from the State of Kerala, thereby benefiting a large number of students from the state. Union Cabinet in its meeting held in May, 2025 has approved expansion of academic and infrastructure capacity including creation of Research Park of five new IITs including IIT Palakkad in Kerala with a total outlay of Rs. 11,828.79 crore, out of which ₹ 2597.12 crore has been allocated to IIT Palakkad for the period 2025–26 to 2028–29. Further, during the last five financial years approximately ₹1550 crore has been released to IIT Palakkad through Grant-in- Aid. At present, out of 31 National Institutes of Technology (NITs), one NIT is functioning at Calicut in the State of Kerala. This Institute is centrally funded technical Institutions under the Ministry of Education and receives financial assistance from the Central Government for their academic activities, research, salaries, scholarship/fellowship, infrastructure development etc. The details of grants-in-aid release to NIT, Calicut for the last five years are as under: - (Amount in Crore) Year Fund released 2021-22 158.00 2022-23 219.22 2023-24 261.12 2024-25 319.59 2025-26* 332.46 *Tentative allocationThe Ministry of Education has established five centrally funded IIITs and twenty IIITs under the Not-for-profit Public Private Partnership (N-PPP) model to address the skill needs of the Indian IT industry and the growing domestic IT market, with the objective of producing world-class IT professionals and strengthening human capital for the IT sector in India. Out of these IIITs, one IIIT under the PPP mode, namely the IIIT (PPP) Kottayam, was established in 2015 in Kottayam district of Kerala. The institute currently has a student strength of 2336 and is functioning from its permanent campus at Valavoor, Palai, Kottayam. The capital cost for setting up the institute is ₹128.00 crore, shared in the ratio of 50:35:15 by the Central Government, the State Government, and industry partners respectively. In addition, ₹10.00 crore was provided by the Central Government towards recurring expenditure. The Ministry has already released its entire share of funding, and as per the scheme guidelines, no further grant is admissible once the Central Government’s share has been fully released. Last funding to IIIT Kottayam was Rs. 3.51 crore during 2021-22. The details of total grant released by the University Grants Commission to Kerala State on Higher Education under the various schemes for the last five years, i.e., 2020-21 to 2024-25, are as under: (Rs. in lakh) 2020-21 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25 5515.79 5665.67 6093.43 8885.79 7819.24 Also, the Central University of Kerala is fully funded by UGC. Grants provided to the university during the last five years are as follows: (Rs.in Lakh) Grant Released (Head) Sl.No. Year Salary Recurring Capital Assets 1 2020-21 3160.63 1404.81 550.00 2 2021-22 2857.18 1060.15 400.00 3 2022-23 3710.00 1483.00 475.00 4 2023-24 5650.00 2050.00 475.00 5 2024-25 4250.00 2400.00 400.00 (c) Education is part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution and most of the Government schools are under the administration of the State Government and its bodies. The Ministry of Education implements ICT and Digital initiatives under Samagra Shiksha to enhance digital learning in Government schools across the country, including rural areas. The initiatives aim to enhance the quality of education by integrating technology into teaching and learning processes. Under theinitiatives, funds are provided for setting up ICT Labs and Smart Classrooms according to the requirements of the State submitted in the Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B). A comprehensive initiative called PM eVidya was initiated as part of Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan on 17th May, 2020, which unifies all efforts related to digital/online/on-air education to enable multi-mode access to education across the country. States/UTs collaborate with NCERT to utilise, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives as per their requirements. NCERT also provides regular guidance/ feedback to States/UTs on the quality of these initiatives. The key components of PM eVidya are also aligned towards enhancing digital literacy and include 200 DTH TV channels. These channels were launched on 9th March 2024 by Hon’ble Education Minister. As per the Union Budget announcement for Financial Year 2022-23, 12 DTH channels have been expanded to 200 PM eVidya DTH TV channels and 400 Radio channels to enable all States/UTs to provide supplementary education in various Indian languages for classes 1-12. Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA) is the Nation’s digital infrastructure for providing quality e-content for school education in States/UTs and QR coded Energised Textbooks (ETBs) for all grades (One Nation, One Digital platform). To promote crucial critical thinking skills and to give space for creativity, more than 614 Virtual Labs and 100 Virtual skill labs (50 each in Hindi and English) have been created and made available on the DIKSHA platform. DIKSHA Offline supports areas with limited or no internet connectivity. Additionally, the Government of India, in the Budget 2025, has announced provision of broadband connectivity to all Government Secondary schools in rural areas, under the ‘BharatNet’ project to enhance digital infrastructure in remote areas by BSNL in a phased manner. ***