एस.एम.सी.(विद्यालय प्रबन्ध समिति)
INTRODUCTION
The Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE Act) 2009 was passed by the Parliament
in August 2009. After receiving Presidential assent, it was notified for implementation from April
1, 2010.
The RTE Act 2009 has generated a lot of debate. While on the one end, it has been opposed and
condemned as a design of the neo-liberal state to sabotage school education further, on the other
end it has been sighted as the most revolutionary Act. However, both positions are far from reality.
While the first position leads to an all out opposition of the Act and confrontation with the
Government, the second position may also lead to inaction and illusion about the real intention
and capacity of the current Indian state. Either of the two positions can cause harm to the cause
of mass education.
We are of the view that in spite of its limitations, some provisions of the RTE Act like provision
for better infrastructure, improved Pupil Teacher Ratio and the enhanced role of School Management
Committee (SMC), if utilized properly, have the potential of revitalizing the almost defunct
government schools that cater to the common people in the country. These provisions can be
realized through concerted civil society interventions and constructive engagement with the governments
at the centre and the state levels.
Government school system in India caters to children living in villages and small towns, which is
a fairly large proportion of the Indian population.
It consists of 77 percent of our country’s total
population of 860 million.1
The extremely poor quality of education available to them ensures that
a large majority of India’s children continue to be far behind. One of the main reasons, for such a
dismal state of our public system of schools is that the local communities have not been able to
assert themselves and effect desirable changes.
It is ironical that education can be a great leveler and also be a means to perpetuate the existing
social divide. Great hierarchy in schooling provisions exist in India. Equality of opportunity in
terms of accessing school, have remained at best a political rhetoric. India’s middle class who
can afford to pay for their children’s education opt for sending their children to high fee paying
private schools and for rest of the masses poorly equipped barely functioning government
schools remain the sole option. The social and economic divide that exists in society is reflected
in access to schools as well.
The government run school system is heterogeneous and has large variety within it. On the one
hand, we have single teacher, building less multi-grade EGS schools and on the other, a class of
comfortably funded - Central Schools and Navodaya Vidyalayas which target a limited set of children
(of government employees). Amongst these lie majority of India’s schools which continue
to be managed and funded by the government and dot the rural landscape of India.
Under the RTE Act 2009, parents have been entrusted with certain powers through the SMC
elected by them; proper exercise of the same can initiate a process of improving schools. For
that to get actualized, the community at large and the SMC members in particular have to be
supported through training and handholding. They have to be made aware of the provisions of
the RTE Act, the roles, composition and the process of formation of the SMCs.
