The Tamil Nadu School Education Department announced that the state government will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Union Education Ministry to implement the PM SHRI scheme in the state, the Ministry of Education said. This initiative aims to enhance the quality of education in the state and align with the National Education Policy 2020 objectives. The government will sign the MoU before the beginning of the academic year 2024-25.
The PM SHRI schools will deliver quality teaching for students’ cognitive development and will strive to create and nurture holistic and well-rounded individuals equipped with the necessary 21st-century skills. The effort will be developed as green schools, incorporating environmentally friendly aspects such as solar panels and LED lights, nutrition gardens with natural farming, waste management, plastic-free, water conservation and harvesting, the study of environmental traditions and practices, a climate change-related hackathon, and raising awareness to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
With Tamil Nadu agreeing to implement the scheme, Odisha, West Bengal, Kerala, and Delhi are the only states that have not yet needed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Union Ministry of Education for having such schools.
The ministry announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “The Tamil Nadu Government has made an important decision to sign an MoU with the Ministry of Education and the Government of India to implement the PM SHRI Scheme. PM SHRI are #NEP2020 exemplar schools’. It also stated that the collaboration between the Tamil Nadu government and the Ministry of Education, Government of India, represents stronger center-state relations. “We wholeheartedly welcome this initiative as it exemplifies our shared commitment to ensuring holistic development for Tamil Nadu students,” it added.
The PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme aims to upgrade 14,500 schools and serve 1.8 million students. It also intends to ensure that these schools serve as model institutions and embody the spirit of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In the first round, the government chose 6,448 schools from 28 states and union territories to be upgraded.
