The government has recently approved a new definition of guardians, according to which, only father, mother, grandfather and grandmother of the student can head School Management Committees (SMCs).[break] Even in the three seats allocated exclusively in the SMCs for guardians, only parents and grandparents have the right to play their parts.
"The rationale behind the new definition is that only parents and grandparents among guardians have real concern for the performance of schools where their children go," said Bidur Giri, under secretary at the School Education Section (SES) of the Ministry of Education (MoE). "This is because the quality of school is inextricably linked with the future of their children. Other guardians do not care much about this."
According to the Education Act-1971, guardians can elect someone from among themselves to head the SMC. However, in the past, anyone who takes financial responsibility for the student could lead the SMC, mainly owing to the lack of a precise definition of guardians in the Education Regulations. Education experts and MoE officials believe that the unbridled grip of unreal guardians over the SMCs led to the further downfall of many public schools.
"Previously, even those who had enrolled just their domestics in public schools, let alone distant relatives, became chairmen of SMCs," said Giri. "In this case, it is understandable they had no concerns at all about the performance of the school where only their domestics studied."
A vital step
The performance of public schools, barring a few exceptions, is abysmally poor. If the pass percentages in the SLC exams are any indicator, the performance of public schools is very poor compared to that of private schools. The underperformance of public schools has ultimately affected the overall pass percentages in the SLC exams.
Education experts strongly argue that the weak management of public schools, caused by the negligence of the SMCs where unreal guardians rule the roost than real parents, is one of the reasons behind their constant downfall. According to Dr Bishnu Karki, an education expert, the concept of SMC is to create an emotional bonding between schools and communities. "This concept, however, is only confined to papers," Dr Karki said.
According to Dr Karki, local influential persons, mostly in Tarai districts, have started flexing their muscles to grab the SMCs. "If some one becomes the chairman of a SMC, he is greeted by his supporters with much fanfare. This clearly indicates that such people´s real motive is not the improvement of school," he said. "Many are eying the SMCs to provide jobs to their near ones."
Bhola Dahal, an education expert, argues that the dissolution of elected local bodies also abetted the misuse of SMCs. "Earlier, people could try for the post of Village Development Committee (VDC) chairman to maintain their prestige among local villagers," Dahal told Republica. "Later, with such opportunities gone, they used the SMCs to retain their influence among people. Cases of resort to gunfire in the elections of the SMC chairman speak volumes about this. Hence, the goal of improving public schools through SMCs was sadly not met."
Dr Karki believes that the government´s measures to involve genuine guardians, instead of those who do not care for the quality of education, in the SMCs could help bridge the disparity between the performance of public and private schools. Dr Karki, however, unveils a pitfall of this move. "There are some people who, in spite of not having their own children in public schools, have been genuinely contributing through SMCs," he said, adding, "The government´s new move could alienate them, consequences of which could be more serious than thought."
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