Right to Education Is Non-Negotiable. It Shouldn’t Depend on Centre-State Relations
Mayuri Gupta | 19 June 2025 | The Indian Express
In a quiet yet telling move, last month Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court against the Centre for freezing educational funds. The Centre informed the Rajya Sabha during the 2025 Budget session that it allocated no funds to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal under the Centre’s share for the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan for 2024–25. These states are not underperformers; rather, they have been long recognised for their robust education systems. Notably, this freeze isn’t a clerical error or a mere budgetary oversight. It reflects a worrying trend of politicised fiscal federalism, one that not only threatens the constitutional promise of equality and cooperative governance but also strikes at the heart of the fundamental right to education.
At the heart of this federal standoff is the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) that play a pivotal (and sometimes outsized) role in governance. They are conditional grants under the Constitution that are unilaterally designed and partially funded by the Centre and implemented by the state governments. The disbursal of the Centre’s share under the CSS depends on certain conditions and is tied to a set of procedural and compliance-related requirements. For instance, Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan is an umbrella scheme for school education under the Ministry of Education. It integrates three CSS: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and Teacher Education (TE) aimed at equitable quality school education across India — from pre-school to senior secondary level — while also supporting teacher-training and system strengthening. The fund-sharing ratio between the Centre and the states (other than NE states) is 60:40…