General Education Minister V. Sivankutty stated that Kerala presented its education policy as a national alternative to counter insidious efforts to saffronise and corporatise education. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) on Sunday (October 19, 2025) appeared divided over the Kerala Government’s move to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Central Government to access the sizeable funds of the Prime Minister’s Schools for Raising India (PM SHRI) purportedly tied to the imposition of the contentious National Education Policy (NEP) in States.
Kerala was among the several non-BJP-ruled States, including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, that had demurred from implementing the scheme based on the perception that NEP signalled a federal overreach into the jurisdiction of provincial governments over general education, a concurrent list subject.
However, General Education Minister V. Sivankutty signalled a turnabout recently by stating that signing the MOU did not signal that the LDF had accepted the Centre’s bid to impose the NEP over States by making it a precondition for the release of PM SHRI funds.
Mr. Sivankutty stated that Kerala presented its education policy as a national alternative to counter insidious efforts to saffronise and corporatise education. He mentioned that Kerala had resisted attempts to erase certain parts of Indian history by keeping sections that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had unilaterally removed.
“We have introduced new textbooks to combat attempts to distort history or promote a revanchist agenda to undermine the development of a scientific, secular and progressive temper among school students,” he said.
Kerala to pursue legal action against Centre over PM SHRI-linked fund block, says Education Minister
Nevertheless, Mr. Sivankutty said Kerala could ill afford to lose the ₹1,446 crore the Centre owed the State under the PM SHRI scheme.
“The government must take a pragmatic approach. Kerala needs funds to increase student scholarships, including for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) communities, modernise post-matric hostels for underprivileged students, finance research and publish new school textbooks, and upgrade school infrastructure by procuring the latest teaching aids and paying the salaries of more than 7,000 government school teachers. Currently, the State Government bears all the costs,” he said.
Mr. Sivankutty stated that the Higher Education and Agriculture Departments had signed up for Central schemes despite profound ideological differences.
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal have received no funds under Samagra Shiksha for FY2024-25
CPI takes strong exception
Communist Party of India (CPI) State Secretary Binoy Viswam told The Hindu that the government’s move to accept PM SHRI funds was fiscally non-beneficial and politically incorrect.
“The 2022 PM SHRI scheme will expire in 2026-27. The amount the State will receive is meagre, since the release of funds is conditional on the timely annual submission of utilisation certificates. Kerala has shunned the scheme for nearly five years. The Centre will not release the funds with retrospective effect,” he said.
Mr. Viswam said Kerala had set a model for other States by rejecting the PM SHRI, which he termed as the Centre’s attempt to strong-arm provincial governments into accepting the “reactionary NEP”.
He said the NEP “denied” Darwin’s theory of evolution and placed folklore over science. “Kerala cannot accept NEP. Its model, as in general education, offers a national alternative to the neo-liberal, pro-corporate revanchist ideology of the Sangh Parivar. “The LDF, which is at the forefront in the fight against the BJP’s saffronisation agenda, should not lose sight of its historical national mission,” he said.
Congress stance
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph, MLA, told reporters in Kozhikode that CPI should broadcast its loyalty to the national cause against the BJP by asking its ministers to object to the move in the LDF and also the Cabinet. “Mere sabrerattling and token utterances of protest are not enough,” he said.
Published – October 19, 2025 01:40 pm IST
