Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday initiated “School Management Committee (SMC) dialogue” for 1,100 government and aided schools.
On Saturday, 150 of the 16,000 elected members of the SMC took part in the dialogue.
According to the Delhi government, this is for the first time in the history of Delhi that elections have been held in 1,100 government and government aided schools to elect the SMCs and 75 percent of the 16,000 elected members are parents.
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“SMC election with participation of over one lakh parents is a historic step in the history of education sector in Delhi,” Mr. Sisodia said.
The SMC concept is aimed at increasing the participation of parents in the functioning of schools.
“The SMC will be a monitoring body, which will function as eyes and ears of the Department of Education in schools. The committee will meet once in two months and will review the progress report of the school and implementation of the School Development Plan,” Mr. Sisodia added. “The SMC will conduct a social audit of the accounts of the schools, particularly about utilization of government grants,” he added. As per the Delhi government, more than one lakh parents had participated in the voting process to elect the SMCs this time. “The elections were a formal exercise in which nomination papers were filled up and scrutinized, which was followed by voting on a widely publicised fixed date of August 14 in all the schools,” a statement from Delhi government read.
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“It was mandatory for each candidate to get his/her nomination paper proposed by at least 10 parent proposers. The Department of Education had appointed observers in every school to supervise the election process,” it further added.
In every school, the SMC now has 16 members, including the principal, one teacher, one social worker, one elected representative and 12 elected members.
The SMC concept is aimed at increasing the participation of parents in the functioning of schools