PM SHRI School Yojana in Chhattisgarh

What is PM SHRI School Yojana in Chhattisgarh?

PM SHRI, short for Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India, is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Union Ministry of Education launched on 7 September 2022 to develop more than 14,500 existing government schools across the country into exemplar schools that show what the National Education Policy 2020 looks like in practice. In Chhattisgarh, the scheme is implemented by the School Education Department through the Samagra Shiksha structure at the state, district and block level.

Chhattisgarh has 341 PM SHRI schools. The state received 211 schools in the first selection round in 2023 and 130 more in 2024, of which 78 were approved in September 2024. The selected schools are spread across every district of the state, including the Bastar and Surguja divisions, so that a model school is reachable from tribal and remote blocks and not only from the district headquarters towns.

Reports from the Chhattisgarh School Education Department put the development support at about Rs 2 crore per selected school over the scheme period.

What the money is used for

• Smart classrooms with projectors and digital teaching content.
• Upgraded science and mathematics laboratories, and ICT and computer labs.
• Digital libraries and reading corners.
• Drinking water, toilets, ramps and other accessibility works.
• Sports equipment, playgrounds and physical education facilities.
• Vocational exposure, skill labs and bagless-days activities.
• Teacher training and mentoring, so that the school becomes a resource centre for the other schools in its block.

Who is eligible for PM SHRI in Chhattisgarh, and who is not eligible?

A school can apply if:

• It is managed by the central government, the Chhattisgarh government, a union territory administration or a local body such as a municipal corporation, nagar panchayat or zila panchayat.
• It has a valid and updated UDISE+ code.
• It meets the minimum benchmark conditions set for its category, covering items such as pucca building, boundary wall, functional toilets for girls and boys, drinking water, electricity and a library.
• It can complete the School Quality Assessment Framework self-assessment honestly, because the answers are physically verified.

A school cannot apply if:

• It is an unaided private school. Private management schools are not eligible under PM SHRI.
• It has no UDISE+ code or the code is not updated for the current academic year.
• It does not meet the minimum benchmarks for its category in the challenge round.

Individuals cannot apply. Students, parents, teachers and school management committee members have no personal application under PM SHRI. There is no scholarship, no stipend and no cash transfer to a student under this scheme. Anyone claiming to register a child for a "PM SHRI scholarship" for a fee is running a fraud. A child benefits by studying in one of the 341 selected schools, with no form to fill.

What documents are required?

How to apply for PM SHRI school selection

The application is made by the school, in what the Ministry of Education calls challenge mode. The steps are:

1. Confirm the UDISE+ record is complete and current. Update enrolment, teacher and infrastructure fields on the UDISE+ portal first, because PM SHRI validates against this data.
2. Register the school on pmshrischools.education.gov.in using the head teacher or principal login provided by the district education office in your district of Chhattisgarh.
3. Complete the School Quality Assessment Framework self-assessment online when the Ministry opens a challenge window. Answer against actual records: inflated answers are the main cause of failure at the verification stage.
4. Submit the application before the window closes and download the acknowledgement.
5. Cooperate with state-level scrutiny and physical verification. The Chhattisgarh School Education Department verifies shortlisted schools on the ground and forwards a recommended list to the Ministry of Education.
6. Receive the approval and sign the MoU commitment to implement NEP 2020 provisions, after which funds flow through the state's Samagra Shiksha Programme Approval Board and annual work plan.

Challenge windows open periodically and are announced by the Ministry of Education and circulated by the Chhattisgarh Directorate of Public Instruction to district education officers. A school that missed a round can apply in the next one.

How to check whether a school is a PM SHRI school

1. Open the PM SHRI portal at pmshrischools.education.gov.in and use the school search, or open the selected-schools list published by the Department of School Education and Literacy.
2. Filter by state Chhattisgarh and then by your district and block.
3. Search by the school's UDISE+ code, which is the most reliable key, because several schools in a district can share a similar name.
4. If the school does not appear, check with the district education officer, since newly approved schools take time to appear in published lists.

How PM SHRI money reaches a Chhattisgarh school

PM SHRI is funded on the standard Centrally Sponsored Scheme pattern, with the Government of India and the state government sharing the cost in a 60:40 ratio for a state such as Chhattisgarh. Funds do not go to the school as a lump sum. The school prepares a proposal, the district consolidates it, the state puts it into the Samagra Shiksha annual work plan and budget, the Project Approval Board of the Ministry of Education approves it, and money is released in instalments against approved components and utilisation certificates.

This is why a selected school does not see Rs 2 crore appear in its account. It sees a smart classroom in one year, a science lab in another and sports equipment in a third, each against a sanctioned component.

Common problems and how to fix them

• School selected but no work started. Ask the head teacher for the approved annual work plan component list, then follow up with the block education officer and the district Samagra Shiksha office.
• UDISE+ mismatch blocking registration. Correct enrolment and infrastructure fields on UDISE+ through the block resource centre, then retry.
• Self-assessment failed verification. The school can reapply in the next challenge window after correcting the deficiency, most often functional toilets, drinking water or boundary wall.
• Parents asked to pay for smart-class facilities. No PM SHRI component may be charged to parents. Report it to the district education officer in writing.
• Confusion with PM SHRI and PM POSHAN. These are separate schemes. PM POSHAN is the mid-day meal scheme; PM SHRI is school upgradation. Both operate in the same schools.

Where to raise a grievance

• Head teacher or principal, then the Block Education Officer, then the District Education Officer of your district in Chhattisgarh — the normal escalation chain for anything happening inside the school.
• Directorate of Public Instruction and the State Project Office, Samagra Shiksha, Chhattisgarh, Raipur, for fund flow and approval questions.
• Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education, through the contact and grievance links on education.gov.in, for portal and selection issues.
• CPGRAMS, the central public grievance portal, for a written complaint with a tracking number.

PM SHRI selection is free for a school and free for a student. No fee, donation or agent payment is involved at any stage.