Abstract:

This piece of research seeks to study the community participation in planning, management and supervision of civil works as well as academic activities of government school at secondary stage through School Management and Development Committee (SMDC). The study was set in three constitutionally scheduled tribal districts namely Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Nabarangpur of Odisha. The data were collected by using a semi-structured interview schedule from SMDC members of 30 government secondary schools.  The close-ended responses were analyzed by using percentage analysis and open-ended responses were embedded through thick description. The major findings of the study revealed that the Heads of the school concerned as the chairman of the SMDC has been initiating the formation process of the SMDC. The composition of SMDC was uniform and complied with the state government guidelines. Grossly, the Head and teacher members of the school had been monitoring and supervising civil works as well as academic activities of the school.  It was observed that engagement in domestic works, lack of information in advance about the meeting, lack of awareness of role and responsibilities, weak articulation power of woman members from Schedule Caste (SC)/ Scheduled Tribe (ST) community and low educational level of the members were the prominent causes of low attendance rate in SMDC meetings particularly among the parents, Panchayat Raj Institution nominees (PRIs), Village Education Committee (VEC) and Self-Help Group (SHG) members. The study concludes that along with structural reform, some long-term context specific local strategies are required for the capacity building of community members for proactive participation in the SMDC.

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