VELLORE / TIRUPATHUR / RANIPET: After Chief Minister MK Stalin's recent announcement, the school education departments in Vellore, Ranipet and Tirupathur are making efforts to revamp the School Management Committees (SCMs).
The committee focuses on creating self-reliant government schools and taking care of day-to-day maintenance, sanitation and infrastructure needs. Besides, they plan to improve the quality of education and the Illam Thedi Kalvi (ITK) scheme. They would address student's grievances, violence and sexual assault issues and help halt dropouts rate. The scheme aims to improve standards of State-run schools with community participation.
Respective district managements are training five representatives from each school. Training for SMC members in Vellore began on March 7 and will go on till March 12. Around 53 resources persons or master trainers in the district are taking care of 15 schools each, an official said.
Tirupathur Chief Education Officer Ayyanathan told TNIE,"We are including educationalists in the school governing system. Over 700 persons are being trained for SMC in our district. Special artist groups will conduct awareness about this programme in 13 places a day--like habitations, markets and in the MGNREGA fields."
In Ranipet along with SMC members, 3,611 ITK volunteers are provided with training, officials said. "Around 98 per cent of the training is complete. The ITK volunteers will spread the message about the SMC program on March 18 and 19 to persuade parents to attend SMC meetings," an official explained.
On March 20, the SMC meeting will be held and new members will be elected. While this programme has been ongoing since 2009, it was not implemented effectively in the last three years, officials on condition of anonymity said. They added, the schools' development programs will be made by the SMC.
Also, grants would be given to the committee to spend for development and maintenance of schools. The money starts from Rs 10,000 to a Rs 1 lakh. More will be provided based on the school population.
The parents and local body representatives must take a certain level of responsibility to help improve the schools, city-based School Teachers Federation of India member SN Janardhanan told TNIE. "We have to wait and watch how it is executed but this programme could benefit students. It may give very good results in some places where community participation is good. Earlier, the problem was lack of interest from parents and delay of civic polls," he added.