By Express News Service
CHENNAI: The ‘Save School Education Movement’ of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, on Sunday, launched a new initiative in a bid to ensure the implementation of Right To Education (RTE) Act. Called ‘Power to the People’, the initiative primarily aims to ensure the constitution of the School Management Committees (SMC), as mandated under the law.
“Only around 10 per cent of schools across the country have set up SMCs. For the rest, it still remains on paper,” said V Vasanthi Devi, a former Vice-Chancellor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University and president of Power to People initiative.
The SMCs are to have 20 members, 75 per cent of them parents, half of them women with representation to teachers, local government members, marginalised sections and others.
The movement will also urge Gram Sabhas to take ownership of schools in its jurisdiction and assume responsibility for the development of the institutions. Private schools should also be monitored by a village community, she said. To achieve this, a team of activists in both rural and urban areas would be formed for each school, said members.
Unless mechanisms for proper inspections are in place, quality of education will deteriorate, said senior educationist SS Rajagopalan, speaking at a panel discussion organised by the ‘Save School Education Movement.’ Dissecting the recent GO 101 which focuses on administrative restructuring, Rajagopalan told Express, “Not one new post has been created , nor has the funding been increased. There can be no major benefits from the order.”
