All schools (except unaided) must constitute School Development Monitoring Committees (SDMCs) immediately as required by the Right to Education (RTE) rules, said Renni D’Souza, child rights activist and Director of Padi, a non-governmental organisation, who was a resource person at a meeting held in the city on Thursday.
He said that a resolution had been passed to this effect at the meeting, which was jointly organised by the SDMC Committee and the Mangalore unit of Education Resource Centre, a community-based organisation.
For the first time, the constitution of SDMCs had been made part of an Act. Earlier, they were established in accordance with circulars.
According to RTE rules, every school (other than unaided) should have an SDMC. The SDMC must be constituted within six months of the coming into force of RTE rules and reconstituted every three years. It should have 16 elected members with the head teacher or a senior teacher as ex-officio member secretary. About 50 per cent of its members must be women. “But that has not happened. The government must take a relook at SDMCs,” he said.
No study had been made about schools in Dakshina Kannada that had SDMCs in accordance with RTE rules. It was delaying taking action in the setting up of SDMCs and it must implement them immediately in all schools, he said. Most private schools did not have SDMCs and the Education Department should take stringent action against them, he said.
Mr. D’Souza said that private schools must re-register and that schools must have sufficient number of teachers.
