Higher secondary schools received Rs 44.21 cr CSR funds from 2019 to 2022, reveals study

CHENNAI: The survey held by Samagra Shiksha (SS) department along with Unicef in the school education space has revealed that higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu received the maximum corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds of Rs 44.21 crore between the financial years 2019 and 2022.

This was followed by Rs 32.92 crore for primary schools, Rs 24.80 crore for middle schools and Rs 14.62 crore for high schools.

For the survey on ‘mapping donor intervention and support in the school education space’, data from 37,558 schools were collected by SS and Unicef together. Out of this, 4,101 schools confirmed receiving CSR support of Rs 116.57 crore via various firms, while 6,610 schools said they did not receive any support at all. And the remaining 26,847 schools did not respond.

Putting into perspective, the support received by higher secondary schools account for overall 38% followed by 28% for primary schools. Interestingly, the survey noted that the trend remained similar post COVID-19 lockdown too.

The donor concentration has been higher in districts like Chennai, Thanjavur, Coimbatore, Tirupur and Salem, where the development and industrialisation are active as compared to other districts.

Also, while analysing the top 500 companies in India, at least 10% (50-60 firms) are present in TN and are found directly and indirectly involved in the school education sector. And the CSR funding for these companies was Rs 7,000 crore, stated the survey document.

Some of the findings from the survey are that requirements of schools and students have diversified, need to balance donor concentration across TN so that students in remote villages are also supported, access to quality education should become a primary target as State has already achieved 99% in access to education and need for aligning with the State policies.

Some of the recommendations are need for a State-driven system to collect data on funds availability, accounting for presence of NGOs and implementing agencies in the fund flow and process flow.