PM SHRI schools scheme

In News 

Recently ,it has been highlighted that the success of the PM SHRI schools scheme will depend on the quality of educators.

About PM SHRI schools scheme

• The Union Cabinet approved the ‘PM Schools for Rising India’ (PM SHRI) scheme to turn existing government schools into model schools .
• It  will showcase all components of the National Education Policy 2020, act as exemplary schools and also offer mentorship to other schools in their vicinity.
• The scheme will be implemented as a Centrally sponsored scheme with a total project cost of ?27,360 crore  for the period of five years from 2022-23 to 2026-27 for transforming nearly 14,500 schools across the country.
• A ‘School Quality Assessment Framework’ is being developed to measure the progress and performance of these schools.

Key features

• It will provide high-quality education in an “equitable, inclusive and joyful environment that takes care of the diverse background, multilingual needs and different academic abilities of children”.
• Development of ‘Green schools’:  These will be equipped with solar panels, LED lights, nutrition gardens, and waste management, water conservation and harvesting systems. 
  • Students will also be made aware of traditions and practices related to the protection of the environment and encouraged to adopt a sustainable lifestyle.
• Modern facilities : including ICT (information and communication technologies) facility, smart classrooms, library, digital library, science labs and vocational labs etc. Schools will also get science and maths kits and annual school grants for libraries or sports.
• Mother tongue and local languages to be encouraged.

Issues 

• The Union Cabinet’s approval of the PM SHRI schools scheme comes at a time when the schooling system is in disarray.
•  Teachers seem to be caught in a time warp after the pandemic and the anxieties of children are increasing because of the switch to online classes during the public health emergency and then the pivot back to regular schooling. 
• Confused school managements and parents are finding it difficult to address learning gaps.
• Currently, poor status, low salaries and inadequate working conditions deter talented people from entering the profession. 
  • We still do not have enough institutes with a curriculum that trains teachers for the schools of the future.
• Improving the quality of education is not just extremely challenging but also an expensive proposition, especially in countries that have large socio-economic gaps. 

Suggestions 

• The 14,500 PM SHRI schools could become the agencies for the change envisaged by the new policies.
• These schools will need to find ways to reverse learning losses and ensure life outcomes that have a positive bearing on the nation’s economy — especially in the ways the country uses its demographic dividend. 
• We need to find new ways to understand not just what the children learn but also how they learn. 
  • In India, 250 million children are out of classrooms and several million are in school, but unable to learn.

Conclusion 

• Poor teaching is a product of systemic deficits that makes the teaching profession unattractive to a large number of talented people.
•  For the PM SHRI schools to succeed, a teacher training programme must be in place to train the educators in the pedagogical practices proposed by the NEP. 
• Perhaps, the government’s next initiative should be a “PM TRI” scheme — Teachers for Rising India.