Can Rs 2,700 crore fund boost fix basic infra in Bengal schools?

The grant will potentially unlock a big chunk of education money stalled since the political tussle between the Centre and previous Trinamool Congress governmentWest Bengal’s BJP government is set to receive around Rs 2,700 crore under the Project Approval Board (PAB) funding of the Union ministry of education for the financial year 2026-27, opening up a significant pool of funds for upgrading basic infrastructure and improving the functioning of government and state-aided schools across the state.These funds will potentially unlock a big chunk of education money that had remained stalled since the prolonged political confrontation between the Centre and the erstwhile Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.The funding follows a Centre-State sharing pattern, with 60 per cent of the expenditure borne by the Union government and the remaining 40 per cent by West Bengal—totalling to Rs 2,700 crore. Sources in the school education department said the state will be able to draw subsequent tranches as and when expenditure is incurred and utilisation is reported.The significance of the allocation lies less in the size of the initial sanction than in the breadth of interventions the state plans to fund through it. The school education department is looking to use the money for a range of longstanding infrastructure gaps—from classrooms and toilets to drinking water, electricity and basic accessibility facilities. “Developing infrastructure across our schools is a priority. Additional classrooms, girls’ toilets, water supply, hand rails, electricity and supplying power through solar energy are our focus,” said Vibhu Goel, state project director, Sarba Siksha Mission, school education department.A substantial part of the proposed expenditure will be directed towards facilities that are often overlooked in discussions on school infrastructure but have a direct bearing on attendance and retention, particularly among adolescent girls. Sources said the department has decided to install sanitary napkin-vending machines in around 9,000 senior and senior secondary schools across Bengal.Water infrastructure is another major component. The state government is separately allocating around Rs 500 crore for laying water pipelines in schools, indicating an attempt to address the more basic problem of reliable water supply before moving towards more sophisticated infrastructure.The PAB allocation will also support the composite school grant, which is meant for the day-to-day maintenance, operations and smaller infrastructure requirements of schools.Recently, chief minister Suvendu Adhikari distributed Rs 296.64 crore under the composite school grant to 80,375 state-run and state-aided schools. The grant is intended to meet recurring requirements as well as minor infrastructure and maintenance needs.The department is also looking at infrastructure through the lens of safety and accountability. Installation of handrails and fans in schools has been identified as a priority, particularly to make school buildings more accessible and safer for students.At the same time, the government is preparing to introduce a new attendance-monitoring mechanism for teachers and students. Rather than installing conventional biometric machines, the state plans to use a geo-referenced mobile application, based on a system used by central public sector undertakings and in schools of at least one other state, Assam. It brings down the cost of installing biometric machines.Under the proposed system, teachers will be required to mark their attendance through their mobile phones by taking a photograph when they reach school. The geo-referencing feature will establish that the image was captured from the school premises. A similar system could be used to record student attendance.The move is being seen within the department as more than an attendance reform. Officials believe a real-time record of students present in schools could also help plug leakages in welfare programmes, particularly the mid-day meal scheme.At present, officials acknowledge that one of the persistent challenges in monitoring school meals is the possibility of inflated student numbers being shown on paper. If student attendance is digitally recorded and geo-referenced, it could become considerably harder for schools to show a larger number of students as beneficiaries than those actually present.Subscribe to India Today Magazine- EndsPublished By: Akshita JollyPublished On: Aug 25, 2026 18:48 IST