Kolkata, Feb 25,2023: West Bengal government is all set to receive Rs 2,400 crore from Centre under Samagra Shiksha Mission, an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to higher secondary level.

Sources from the state education department said after every Union budget the Centre discusses with the state governments on the allocations under different centrally-sponsored schemes.

“Accordingly, there was a meeting on Friday between the representatives of the Union and West Bengal governments on allotment to the state under the Samagra Shiksha Mission. In that meeting, the amount to be received by the state government under this scheme was fixed at Rs 2,400 crore,” a state education department official said.

This allotment will be for the financial year 2023-24.

“In the meeting, the state government representatives also pointed out that within just little over a month left for the current financial year of 2022-23 to end, West Bengal government is yet to receive Rs 1,200 crore earmarked for the state during the fiscal under review and the pending dues. The state government representatives urged their counterparts in the Union government to release that fund at the earliest considering the excellent performance of the state under the scheme during the ongoing fiscal so far,” the state education department official said.

The Samagra Shiksha Mission was introduced in the Union budget for the financial year 2018-19 which proposed to treat school education holistically doing with the previous process of segmentation in three categories and subsuming the three erstwhile schemes of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Teacher Education. The major aim of the scheme was to provide quality education and enhance the learning outcomes of students among others.