School doesn’t directly engaged parents in the
class-room process, and the parents don’t make any effort to get involved
either. But the worst thing is, parents
are given the opportunity to get involved in the affairs of the school through
the School Management Committee (SMC), but
they have failed to take full advantage of that opportunity.
Most schools have planned for a
monthly SMC meeting, and most of the time, the parents never showed up for the
meeting. Even when it was held, they just
let the Head Teacher do all the talking, and even worse, when discussing about
the class-room process, they just handed everything into the hand of the
teacher saying that they know nothing and have full faith in the teachers.
The problem with SMCs everywhere is that, the
average SMC members are people who can ill-afford to give up their daily wage
to sit around in a meeting in which they don’t see any value, and they are
usually illiterate. But worst still, they don’t feel they can hold a government
school teacher or anyone in authority accountable as they thinks government
school education is a free service, and as such, just a charity.
Also, apart from the charity aspect, parents
who are uneducated find it very difficult to question an educated Head Teacher
and so are unable to pressurize the HT to correct things, or take steps for
grievance redressal if it involves interacting with government officials.
If the quality of our education in Government's schools is to improve, parents must not only get involved with the management of the school, but also must get themselves involved in the class-room processes, and take full ownership of the school and the education system itself!
