With the Centre withholding the funds for the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan to the tune of ₹2,152 crore, the Tamil Nadu government has released funds from its own financial resources.
Presenting the state budget on Friday, Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu said that the state government will release its own funds towards the salaries of teachers, to ensure that the education of the government school students remains unaffected.
“The Union Government has withheld the approved amount of ₹2,152 crore to Tamil Nadu, citing the State’s non-acceptance of the union government’s New Education Policy, which includes the three-language policy. Despite this, keeping in mind the welfare of students, the state government has allocated funds, including salaries of teachers, from its own resources to ensure that the education of government school students remains unaffected, even in the slightest way,” Minister Thenarasu said in his budget speech.
Recalling the words of poet Bharathidasan that “any opposition to a Tamilian to work for the betterment of Tamil community will eventually crumble and fail even if it is a mighty mountain,” Thenarasu said that the people of Tamil Nadu have rallied behind the chief minister for upholding the dignity of the state on the bilingual policy.
Tamil Nadu contends that the union government is trying to impose Hindi on the Tamil-speaking people by insisting on the implementation of the three-language formula. The state government has been insisting on going by the two-language formula and strongly objects to the three-language policy proposed by the Centre under the New Education Policy 2020.
Though the union government reiterated that the opposition to NEP 2020 has nothing to do with the preservation of Tamil pride, language and culture, the state government has been vociferous in its opposition to the three-language policy and the setting up of PM SHRI schools in the state.
Subsequently, the Centre had withheld ₹2,152 crores under the SSA scheme to fund the salaries of the school teachers and the infrastructure in the education department.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said that the state will not change its language policy, and set up the PM SHRI schools even if it does not allocate funds.
Following this, the state in its 2025-26 budget announced that it will release funds from its own financial resources to support the functioning and infrastructure of the government schools across Tamil Nadu, including the financial resources towards salaries of the teachers.
“In the budget estimates, a sum of ₹46,767 crore has been allocated for the school education department,” Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu announced in his budget speech.
Apart from this ₹275 crore has been allocated to set up student hostels, in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai, to benefit 1,000 students each. Thennarasu also said that ₹1,000 crore will be allocated in 2025-2026 to support “the development of essential infrastructure, including additional classrooms, science laboratories and drinking water facilities in government schools.”