As 2025 draws to an end, the education landscape of Tamil Nadu was not without its hassles. From Samagra Shiksha, the State Education Policy, the draft UGC reforms and the appointment of V-Cs, the State has been in constant struggle with the Centre. But two major events brought the State some form of respite, albeit momentarily — with the release of RTE funds under Samagra Shiksha and the Supreme Court giving “deemed assent” for Vice Chancellor appointments. Taking a quick look into the year that has been, The Hindu recaps what defined education in 2025.
Samagra Shiksha
As two years passed with the Tamil Nadu government and the Union government at loggerheads over the release of Samagra Shiksha funds, 2025 saw the release of the Right to Education component fund thanks to the Supreme Court’s intervention. But the story goes back to 2024 when the Centre reiterated that the State signed onto the PM Shri school MoU to get the Samagra Shiksha funds.
Samagra Shiksha is an integrated Centrally-sponsored scheme for school education from nursery till Class 12, with components for teacher training and salaries, special education, digital education, school infrastructure, administrative reform, vocational and sports education, with grants for textbooks, uniforms, and libraries, among others. The Centre and States contribute funds in a 60:40 ratio. For 2024-25, Tamil Nadu’s allocation under the scheme amounts to ₹3,586 crore, of which the Central share is ₹2,152 crore. For 2025-2026, ₹2,734 crore was allocated. The Centre had also delayed the third and fourth instalments from 2023-24.
However, the Union government had linked the PM Shri school component with Samagra Shiksha, which Tamil Nadu opposed. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over imposing a prerequisite for the fund’s disbursal, namely, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for another Centrally-sponsored education scheme called PM Schools for Rising India (PM Shri). This scheme, being run from 2022-2027, aims to create 14,500 model schools across the country to showcase the implementation of NEP 2020. The Centre has sent multiple letters to Tamil Nadu from September 2022, asking the State to sign the MoU, which included an agreement to fully implement the NEP.
While the State in March 2024 gave an undertaking that it would do so, the State signed a modified MoU, dropping the paragraph on NEP implementation. Tamil Nadu’s major gripe with the NEP 2020 is the three-language formula, Class 1 entry age and the 5+3+3+4 education formula.
In light of the delay of funds which are used for teacher training, RTE funds and teachers’ salary in Tamil Nadu, the State decided to allocated funds from its exchequer to compensate for ₹2,152 crore funds due from the Centre under the Samagra Shiksha scheme in March, 2025 during the Budget session.
In May, Tamil Nadu filed a suit in the Supreme Court accusing the Centre of stopping its annual share of crucial education funds to the tune of over ₹2000-crore under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme. While this continues, the State was still struggling to fill another important component. Right to Education admissions.
As Tamil Nadu struggled to compensate private schools for their RTE students, the State did not conduct RTE admissions as per its usual schedule, i.e May.
A public interest litigation was filed to begin RTE admissions at the Madras High Court. The court in June directed the Union Ministry of Education to consider splitting the disbursal of funds to the Tamil Nadu government under Samagra Shiksha scheme, so that money needed to reimburse private schools under the RTE.
Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu government approached the Supreme Court for the same, for which the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Union government to disburse the funds. Finally, in October Centre disbursed ₹538.39 crore under the Samagra Shiksha’s RTE component thereby allowing the State to commence RTE admissions.
Even as the pressure mounts to adopt NEP 2020, Tamil Nadu in August released the State Education Policy for School Education. The highlight of the policy being, the retention of the two-language formula and the Class 1 entry age being limited to five years of age.
Vice Chancellor Appointments
An ongoing tussle between the head of the State and the Tamil Nadu government finally reached a conclusion, only for it all to crumble down when another court petition filed at the Madras High Court brought it back to square one: the appointments of Vice-Chancellors to State universities.
Presently, as many as 12 universities in the State have no Vice-Chancellors. Apart from University of Madras, the list also includes Periyar University, Anna University, Bharathiar University, Madurai Kamaraj University, Bharathidasan University, Tamil Nadu Teachers Education University, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Tamil University, and Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University.
Several of them have been functioning without a V-C for at least two years, leaving them without administrative leadership and also representation in the Education Ministry. Over the past three three years, the regular process of the Governor, as the Chancellor, selecting a V-C from three possible candidates recommended by a search committee has ended in a deadlock.
Governor R.N. Ravi has insisted that the 2018 regulation of the University Grants Commission (UGC) be followed in the appointment of the V-Cs, especially the clause that one member of the search committee must be a UGC nominee. However, the State government has said that since it has not adopted that particular UGC clause, it would not apply. Tamil Nadu would prefer the process to be guided by State legislation and not Central rules. The resulting impasse has affected the normal functioning of the 12 institutions.
The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a series of Bills for amending the laws applicable to various State-run universities. The primary aim of the amendments was to transfer power from the Governor as the Chancellor to appoint Vice Chancellors to those universities to the State government.
When the Governor sat over the Bills, without granting assent, for long, the State government approached the Supreme Court and obtained an order in April, 2025. Taking serious note of the enormous delay in grant of assent, the top court ordered that the Bills would be deemed to have been granted assent. By virtue of the Supreme Court’s order, the amendment Bills became Acts.
Subsequently, an advocate based in Tirunelveli, filed a public interest litigation petition before the Madras High Court in May, 2025, challenging the constitutional validity of those amendment Acts. The court entertained the PIL petition and passed an interim order and stayed the operation of the amendment Acts to the extent to which they took away the power of appointment of Vice Chancellors from the hands of the Chancellor and vest the same in the State government.
Once again, the Tamil Nadu government approached the Supreme Court on Tuesday in June against the Madras High Court stay of nine Acts bringing the government’s small victory squarely back to stage one. However, in November, 2025 a five-judge bench in the Supreme Court pronounced its advisory opinion on a Presidential Reference questioning the apex court’s authority to “impose” timelines and prescribe the manner of conduct of Governors and the President while dealing with State Bills sent to them for assent or reserved for consideration.
VBSA bill
While the new introduction of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill late in the year hasn’t got much of a response at the State government, educationists in Tamil Nadu have pointed out that this could lead to closure of institutions in rural areas, and privatisation will emerge in the Higher Educational Institutions.
The Bill, introduced in December, 2025 aims to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) as a single body. Experts in Tamil Nadu noted that the new legislation will take away the power of State governments.
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