In an attempt to uphold the guidelines under the Right to Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to convene its first School Management Committee (SMC) meet in November. According to the Act, the SMC should comprise mostly of parents and should work towards the development of the school. Besides, the event will also observe an orientation programme for parents belonging to the socio-economically backward classes.
With over 300 parents participating, the SMC meet is expected to be one of the biggest in the city. Explaining the importance of the event, Vidushi Chaturvedi, director (education), NDMC said, “It became very necessary for us to convene the meet. It is not only due to the RTE that we are doing this, but also to improve the mental and emotional health of the students as a majority of them have disturbed families belonging to economically weaker sections of society.”
The two-day meet, scheduled to be organised in mid-November, will have counselors, psychologists and renowned professors to help and train the parents. While the first day will have parents of children studying in classes 1 to 4, on the second day, parents of children from classes 5 to 8 will be invited. “Many of the children have their fathers habituated to alcoholism or drug abuse even as impoverishment remains the underlying factor. There is domestic violence and children, especially girls, are not allowed to study. Children are affected and influenced by all this. Several cases have been reported to us where students are found to be depressed, violent, aggressive or suppressed. The experts we are calling will counsel or train the parents on how to take care of their wards,” she added. The NDMC has 72 schools under it which mostly have underprivileged students.
“75 percent of an SMC should comprise parents and the remaining includes the principal and the staff. They should meet once every month to discuss on infrastructural and academic growth of the school. We do have SMCs in all our schools, but it does not function up to our expectation because it is a new concept. There are some parents who are very enthusiastic while there are others who are indifferent,” informed an official.