On Sunday, government schools across T.N. to welcome parents

Exercise aims to bring about community engagement with schooling

Government schools across Tamil Nadu are gearing up to welcome around 52 lakh parents on Sunday, as a part of a mammoth exercise to kickstart discussions about School Management Committees (SMCs) for the ‘Nam Palli Nam Perumai’ initiative. 

The initiative aims at actively bringing about community engagement with schooling, and will revamp School Management Committees(SMCs) in government schools. As a start to that, the School Education Department has invited parents to schools on Sunday to engage with teachers and school heads from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

“The Heads of the schools will speak to the parents about the significance of communities engaging with schools, and why it is important for parents to play a larger role in making schooling a meaningful experience. We will also tell them what role the committee will play, and about its functioning,” said a representative working on the Nam Palli Nam Perumai programme. 

A reconstituted SMC will have 20 members of which 15 will be parents. Fifty per cent of the committee is to be made up of women. Four key areas will be the points of focus for the committees — student enrolment and retention, infrastructure, learning, and management.

  To aid the SMCs in effectively coming up with the School Development Plan, the department has been working on an app which would be used extensively by the members to key in relevant data about their areas of focus. This can be anything ranging from student enrolment numbers to information regarding furniture, bathrooms or equipment on campus. The data collected is expected to not just help when a development plan is being drafted by the SMC, but also serve as a repository for the School Education Department. 

To raise awareness about community participation and to encourage parents to come forward and join SMCs, the School Education Department had flagged off an awareness programme earlier last week where groups are visiting villages and spreading the message through cultural performances. 

The reconstitution of the SMCs is scheduled in April.