School Development and Monitoring in Primary Government Schools in Urban Bangalore District, Karnataka

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics - Common Didactics, Educational Objectives, Methods, , language: English, abstract: The present study explores the role of the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) in primary government schools in Bangalore South District, Karnataka. This study compares a minority school with two Kannada medium governments¿ schools to note how functional SDMCs are, the level of awareness among the SDMC members, and the rules and regulations of the SDMC.

The Government of India and the State Governments, since independence, made education as an important tool to bring about socio-economic development in the country. There has been a lot of growth in the educational system. However, the outcomes in terms of enrolment, retention and quality of education have not made huge progress over the last five decades.

The intention of making elementary education universal in the country and improving its quality remains a challenge. India has the highest number of illiterate populations as compared to other countries. There have been studies which tell that in order to improve the overall development of the schools; we need to encourage community participation. For effective functioning of the school, community participation in terms of parent-teacher-student interaction is a need of the hour.

A decentralized approach in education is the most effective outcome to improve the quality of education. The task force report by Raja Ramanna Committee on quality improvement on elementary education introduced the importance of community participation and management for guaranteeing quality education and encouraging community participation through legislation by establishing SDMC.

Karnataka was the first state in adopting SDMC. In 2001, the Government of Karnataka ordered that all the schools should have SDMC as a mandatory body by replacing VEC to bring a "qualitative change" in the educational system and to encourage the role of community in school education. The SDMC circulars describing the composition, objectives duties, responsibilities and procedures promulgated to all the schools. Every school in Karnataka has now equipped with SDMC.