School children suffer in West Bengal as Centre-state government tussle over funds
Under the largest central government scheme for universal school education, the Centre’s share is 60% and the state contributes the remaining 40%.
For the 275-odd students of Bhogpur Maktab primary school in Kolaghat in East Midnapore district, the upcoming summer will be tough to bear. Especially during lunch because only three of the eight fans are working in the dining hall.
Reason: the school’s inability to repair the fans because of a fund crunch. The Centre, for the financial year 2024-25, has not released any money for West Bengal under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme (SSS), citing financial irregularities in how the state government utilised funds in previous financial years.
Caught between the Centre and the state government, many state-run schools in West Bengal are now finding it difficult even to meet routine expenditure needed to clean toilets, buying chalk and dusters or for undertaking minor repairs, teachers and school staff said.
Ananda Handa, an assistant teacher at the Bhogpur school, said, the school doesn’t have funds to repair the fans. “Several fans, lights are not working in the school. Some of the benches in the classrooms are crumbling and need immediate repair. We are finding increasingly difficult to meet the daily expenses of the school such as buying chalks and dusters, pay the electricity bills and go for small repairs. There is not enough fund to meet these expenses,” said Handa.
The case of the Bhogpur school is not a stray one. Many state-sponsored schools in West Bengal are facing similar problems and that problem is worse in schools with fewer students.
In the last seven months, toilets in the Saptapradip free primary school in north Kolkata could be cleaned only thrice as there was no fund to pay a sweeper. The teachers and the students clean the class rooms once a week themselves. “The tin roof has holes and water pours down whenever it rains. We have no fund to repair the roof. Some of the tables and chairs need to be repaired. The teachers have to spend from their own pockets to buy chalks, duster and attendance registers. For the sake of students, we have to organise a small sports and Saraswati Puja. For that too we had to pay from our pocket,” said Sandip Ghosh, teacher-in-charge (TIC) of the school.
In Nandigram in East Midnapore district, the Mohan Jana board primary school received a notice from the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDC) on February 27, that unless the school pays the outstanding amount of ₹2,320 for electricity, the power supply to the school will be disconnected. Several schools in the area have received similar disconnection notice.
"The electricity bill is pending since February 2024. We received a letter from the WBSEDCL on February 27, 2025 to pay the bill within 15 days or our connection will be disconnected. We are waiting for the state education department to release some funds under the composite grant. If we don't get the money, how are we going to pay? Let the power department disconnect the supply," said Uttam Debnath, the school’s headmaster.
In February, the Debnagar Satish Lahiri high school in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal had to cut trees on its premise to pay pending electricity bills and for repair work. The incident only came to light because a group of locals and NGOs complained about the felling of trees.
“While on one hand the funds are not coming, on the other hand prices are rising every day. Various schools are left with no option but to arrange funds on their own even if it means teachers bearing the expenses from their own pockets,” said Chandan Maiti, general secretary of Advanced Society for Headmasters and Headmistresses, which describes itself as an "apolitical organisation for approved headmasters and headmistresses in government-sponsored/government-aided educational institutions" on its website.
The Ramchandrapur Adarasha Vidya Bhavan is located in the flood-prone area of Khanakul in Hooghly district. After every flood, the school is forced to undertake some repair work starting from painting the blackboards to cleaning the silt in class rooms. “The school received ₹18,750 in this current financial year. Had the Centre and the state released the total fund, we would have received ₹75,000. How can we meet the expenses? As the students come from very poor families, we had to waive a portion of the development fee collected from students. After the flood we need to spend ₹5000 – ₹6000 just to clean the silt. Every year we have to keep this fund aside. Then there are various programmess such as sports, awareness programs against dengue, puja among others which need to be arranged,” said Dipankar Ghosh, the school's TIC.
THE FIGHT
Under the SSS, the largest central government scheme for universal school education, the Centre shares 60% of the school budget and the state contributes the remaining 40%. Schools receive this fund ranging from ₹25,000 to ₹1,00,000 depending on the number of students.
The Composite School Grant fund, under the SSS, allows schools to meet recurring expenses such as purchasing stationery, meet the schools’ electricity and internet bills, undertake minor repair works, cleaning toilets and maintaining school building among others.
“The Centre’s non-cooperation in releasing the Samagra Shikhsha fund, has become a significant concern. Since 2022-23, the Centre is not providing any part of their share thereby depriving the state of ₹3,180 crore. For the financial year 2024-25, the Centre has approved composite grant of ₹305.50 crore inter alia other components. The state government, however, released so far ₹124.4 crore. The Centre is duty bound to release the share of composite grant. By not releasing such amount the Centre has not only violated their Constitutional commitment but also has deprived the students of their basic rights” Bratya Basu, state education minister, said.
Data placed in the Lok Sabha on December 16 showed that the actual central share released during the last three years to West Bengal was ₹1,309 crore in 2021-22, ₹1522 crore in 2022-23 and ₹311 crore in 2023-24.
However, the funds for financial year 2024-25 were not released as the West Bengal government had failed to sign an agreement with the central government on PM Shri school scheme.
“States are required to sign a MoU with the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) under the union education ministry for implementation of PM SHRI scheme. Out of 36 states and UTs, 33 states and UTs have signed the MoU so far. Three states, including West Bengal, have not signed the PM SHRI MoU,” minister of state for education Jayanth Chaudhary had told the Lok Sabha on December 9. The PM SHRI scheme was launched in 2022 to improve school infrastructure.
A senior West Bengal government official, who asked not to be named, said: “The Centre didn't assign any reason on what ground the fund was stopped. It was a policy decision of the state administration not to sign the MoU of the PM - SHRI.”
On February 2, Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha that while ₹1745.8 crore has been allocated for West Bengal under SSS, until January 31, 2025 no money has been released.
“The West Bengal government is claiming that the Centre has not released its share. Schools across West Bengal has received only 25% of the state’s share so far. Caught between this centre-state tussle the state-aided and state-sponsored schools and its students are suffering. How are we to run the schools?” asked Maiti.
For long the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) Centre was not releasing funds to the state under multiple schemes. The TMC had made it a key poll plank in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Chief minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee sent letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and even met him seeking release of central funds. She also staged demonstrations against the Centre over freezing of funds and has been upping her ante against the BJP-led government over the issue. In October 2023, the party’s National general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other TMC MPs also held a demonstration in Delhi. The BJP, however, has said that the state siphoned off the Centre’s funds and spent arbitrarily without any checks and balance. When the Centre had asked for accounts, the state didn’t submit it.
To overcome the financial hurdles, some school teachers are pooling money or asking people to donate to run the schools.
At the Bhogpur Maktab school, the teachers pool in ₹100 every month to purchase essential items and bear a part of the electricity bill. “In December we had to organise school sports meet. There was hardly any fund. So, the teachers paid from their own pockets. Some former students, who are now doing jobs, came forward and bore the expenses for buy the prizes for the winners,” said Handa.
At Satjelia, an island in the Sunderban, a school had to lease out its pond and around two bighas of land for farming to local residents to earn some money to run the school.
“We have applied to the state electricity distribution company to install rooftop solar panels on our terrace so that the electricity bills may come down. A lot of expenses have been curtailed by doing away with the elaborate arrangements and sticking to the bare minimum. The teachers have decided not to claim the traveling allowance bills whenever they need to go anywhere for official purpose. The mid-day meal items are being purchased from the wholesale market instead of retail stores to bring down costs,” said Dipankar Ghosh, TIC at Ramchandrapur Adarsha Vidya Bhavan in Hooghly.
