For over 40 years, electric poles and live wires posed a serious safety hazard inside the Tho Jedarpalayam Government Higher Secondary School in Namagiripettai in Namakkal district. Despite numerous attempts, the issue remained unresolved due to a lack of effective coordination with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (Tangedco), stated a report by The New Indian Express.
However, the School Management Committee (SMC), reconstituted in the school two years ago, brought a resolution. The SMC's decision to remove the poles was recently acted upon, providing a safer environment for students.
"The 8.5-acre campus previously had eight electric poles, including one in the playground. Their removal addresses a long-standing safety concern," said a teacher from the school.
The success at Tho Jedarpalayam is part of a broader trend where resolutions by SMCs have helped to effectively tackle various issues in government schools.
In Valparai of Coimbatore district, 14 out of 44 children attending the Panchayat Union Middle School were forced to walk through a risky forest route due to the suspension of bus services to their area during the COVID-19 lockdown.
"We submitted several petitions to resume the service. Earlier this year, a three-year-old girl was attacked by a leopard while taking this route with her mother. With the help of the village chairman, who is part of the SMC, the bus service was resumed recently," said M Velmayil, the headmaster of the school.
According to sources in the school education department, a key intervention that has enabled the resolution of long-pending issues is the constitution of a state-level monitoring committee (SLMC) headed by chief secretary to check the progress of demands from SMCs.
Officials said that with increased inter-departmental coordination after the formation of SLMC, they are seeing issues being resolved quickly.
In 2022, SMCs, mandated under the Right to Education Act, were revived in government schools across the state. Each SMC has met 19 times from September 2022 to June 2024.
A total of 3,84,982 resolutions have been uploaded to the mobile application created to monitor the SMCs' work. Among these, 92,000 have been resolved.
Notably, around 10,000 of these involved inter-department coordination.
According to the department's data, among the 10,000 resolutions, the resolved issues included renovation of damaged buildings (5,004 cases), demolition of dilapidated structures (998 cases), electrical needs (1,690 cases), and drinking water connections (882 cases).
Additionally, SMCs have facilitated the return of 800 students who had dropped out and enrolled 592 students of school-going age from neighbourhoods. Salem district leads with the highest number of resolved resolutions (2,392), followed by Erode (1,097) and Namakkal (836).
The SMCs, which have a two-year tenure, will be reconstituted in the coming months as part of the department's ongoing efforts to enhance their democratic functioning and improve community involvement. An awareness meeting for parents on the role of SMCs is scheduled for Friday (August 2).
The department has passed a series of orders in the past two years to enhance the importance of SMCs. This includes making SMC resolutions mandatory to take up infrastructure works in schools.
"In addition to resolving departmental issues, SMC members have been actively involved in daily operations like monitoring cleanliness of the cooking space, quality of food, and taking turns to help students cross the road among others," said an official, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
