Abstract

The Right to Education Act (RTE) 2009, which makes basic education a fundamental right for every child in the age group of 6 to 14 years, made it mandatory for every school to establish a School Management Committee (SMC), with Section 21 specifying that all schools (Government and Aided) need to establish an SMC “consisting of the elected representatives of the local authority, parents or guardians of the children admitted in such schools, and teachers.”

The RTE has placed immense importance on the SMCs as functionary bodies, with them having only become more involved since the bill’s enactment. Not only do they have important functions in the initiation, monitoring and budget overview of School Development Plans, duties of the SMC are multidimensional and vary widely, with states witnessing a variety of changes in the school governance. For example, in Jharkhand, the state developed and implemented their own guidelines for SMCs, with these committees now given the responsibility for running the schools. However, disconnect between what was on paper and what was happening at ground level had been pointed out. In the light of all these developments, CBPS conducted a 5 state study on community engagement with schools across the states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh.

This report details the results of that study. It examines the SMCs in depth, looking at their constitution, functionality, effectiveness, level of understanding of their own roles and responsibilities, as well as looking into their training and offering suggestions on how to improve the functions of the SMCs. The report also details the results of CBPS’ fieldwork in Jharkhand on SMCs and the gaps in their functioning.

Jha, J., Ghatak, N., Minni, P., & Prasad, GVR. (2015). A study on the impact of training on SMC members and functioning of the SMC: evidence from Jharkhand. Bengaluru: Centre for Budget and Policy Studies.