The Delhi BJP on Monday demanded that the Lieutenant-Governor dissolve School Management Committees (SMCs) in government schools alleging that these had become an “extension” of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a “hub for their politics”.
Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta alleged that AAP workers, councillors, office-bearers and MLAs were members of these SMCs and were “politicising the schools”.
AAP refutes
On its part, AAP, in a statement, argued that these SMCs had been set up in all government and government-aided schools as part of the Right to Education Act (RTE) which sought to empower parents in the decision-making of the school, give them a voice in its administration and were an “integral” part of the law.
“Their entry in schools should be banned...the basic purpose of constitution of SMCs in schools was to ensure all-round development of the schools and to ensure welfare of the students and teachers for which these committees have failed completely,” Mr. Gupta alleged.
“AAP is misusing these committees for their dirty poll politics. These SMCs have become the political platform of the AAP, through which education is being politicised. Four days ago, parents were pressurised to vote for AAP, which the parents resisted. Against this, a complaint was made to the L-G by the BJP. The L-G found this complaint to be true and imposed ban on their meetings,” he alleged.
The leader alleged further that the SMCs were constituted in 2015 and their two-year tenure ended in 2017. By virtue of expiry of this tenure, the leader argued, the existence of these SMCs was “illegal” as these were not re-elected or reconstituted.
According to AAP, however, every SMC has 16 members, including the principal, one teacher, 12 elected parents, one social worker and the elected representative (MLA/Councillor). “The 12 parents are duly elected by the general body of parents of the students of the school by means of democratically held elections. The committee is socially diverse in terms of representation of parents from different castes and at least half of the members [eight] are women,” AAP claimed.
The attempt by those seeking to ask dissolution of the committees, AAP rebutted, was a “conspiracy to derail the education reforms” of the Delhi government which were being appreciated all over the world.