School Management Committees are local bodies set up in government and aided schools under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, largely comprising parents along with teachers and local representatives. They are tasked with overseeing school functioning, preparing development plans and monitoring the use of funds.
The guidelines remained largely unchanged from the earlier ones, but seek to ensure better alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The new guidelines continue to mandate that 75 per cent of the committee should comprise parents or guardians of children, while 50 per cent of the members should be women.
“States and UTs are advised to have SMC in every school including secondary schools (up to Grade 12) in place of School Management Development Committee (SMDC),” the guidelines said.
The SMCs will need to be constituted within one month of the start of an academic year and the term of members will be for two years. The committee will need to meet once every quarter, with the responsibility for ensuring these provisions vested in the member-secretary. The principal or headmaster of the school will be designated as the member-secretary.
Speaking at the launch, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said there is a limit to government provisions and only when society also makes efforts will implementation of the NEP be successful.
“There is already a framework for making salaries and physical infrastructure available, making learning materials accessible, assessment and development of pedagogy, but this is not enough to improve schools. More needs to be done and that will be done by School Management Committees,” said Pradhan.
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