SCHOOL EDUCATION COMMITTEE

12:49 AM |

Village Education Committee (VEC)

Village Education Committee (VEC) is a regulatory body that exists at school level in a village to ensure community participation in smooth functioning of the school. The Government orders related to VEC are 1. G.O. 53 , dated: 26.04.2002 and 2. G.O.108 , dated :31.07.2003

Constitution of VEC

Panchayat President	1 (Chairman)
Headmaster of the school	1 (Member Secretary)
President PTA	1 (Member)
Self Help Group Member (who is also parent)	1 Member
Parents	4 Members
Ward Member or elected Representative	1 Member
ECCE/ICDS Organiser	1 Member
NGO	1 Member
Educationists	1 Member
Teacher Representative	1 Member
Health Worker	1 Member
Village Administrative Officer	1 Member
Women Ward Member	1 Member
SC Ward Member	1 Member
NGO (IED) Worker	1 Member
Parent of one disabled child	1 Member
Youth Club Member	1 Member
Total	20 Members
Not less than one SC/ST and 1/3 of the members should be Women. Where there are two or more schools in a Panchayat, the Panchayat President will be the Chairman of the VEC of his choice.

Roles and Responsibilities of VEC members in SSA context

The G.Os issued by the State Government have also been instrumental in empowering the VECs to accelerate the programme through decentralized and participative approaches. The roles and responsibilities of Village Education Committee members have been redefined as follows:

· Identifying the needs of schools

· Conducting periodical meetings to ensure co-operation of the community

· Assisting the Headmaster in transparent utilisation of grants released to schools and effective utilisation of funds.

· To manage the Joint Account of Village Education Committee

· Undertaking civil construction and maintenance works wherever assigned or needed

· Enrolment of all school-age children and ensuring cent percent completion of elementary education of all children

· Conducting campaigns and melas for Universalisation of Elementary Education

· Monitoring the Academic performance of children, Attendance and Quality of education.

· Organising functions and celebrations of the schools and public events which show the skills of children.

· Effective co-ordination with implementing agencies

· Displaying school data and receipts and expenditure of grants in the school public display board

· Involvement in Teacher Training

· Involvement in appointment of Education Volunteers (EVs) for EGS and Alternative and Innovative Education centres as per guidelines and directions of District Education Committee

· Monitoring the functioning of EGS & AIE centres.

· VEC meetings are also conducted in school on special occasions such as Independence day, Children day, Republic day, Sport days and Annual day.

Some of the good practice of VECs

Community Mobilization

1. School Management

VEC prepares school development plan which envisages among other things, opening of new schools, EGS and AIE centres and upgradation of Primary into middle schools and sends the same to DPO through BRC. The requirements of buildings, toilet and water facilities are also assessed by VEC to include them in plan.

· Identifying the needs of schools

· Assisting the Headmaster in transparent utilisation of grants release to schools and effective utilisation of funds

· Organising functions of the schools and public events which show the skills of children.

· Displaying school data , receipts and expenditure of grants in the school public display board.

· Monitoring the functioning of EGS and AIE centres

2. Monitoring Teachers and Students Attendance

Teachers’ attendance is closely monitored by VECs. As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, teacher attendance is not at all an issue. In VEC meetings, the Headmasters as Member Secretary monitor the long absentees. HM and VEC members meet the parents in their houses and persuade them to send their wards to schools without absenting in future.

3. Construction Works

Construction of classrooms with friendly elements has been entrusted to VECs. The community undertakes all constructions, except BRC buildings. Several VECs have save money by following transparent procedures in the purchase of materials, availing of free labour and have also received contribution in cash and kind from the community. They have utlised the money saved/received for additional provisions to building such as overhead tank, staircase, tiled flooring, additional room water facilities, toilets etc., and for other purchases such as furniture for children.

4. Girls Enrolment

Girls’ education is included under Special Focus Group in all the Districts. KGBV and NPEGEL are the other special programmes implemented for girl children. VEC lists the names of girl children in the age group 6-14 age from the VER. VEC discusses the problems of non-enrolment of girl children and in case of problems convinces the parents to send their girls to schools or to admit them in KGBV.

5. Out-of-school children

VEC members list the names of out-of-school children found in EER. In addition to this the Headmaster as Secretary of the committee identifies the names of students absenting for more than ten days from school. The parents of these children are persuaded to readmit them either in school or bridge courses VECs are involved in continuously monitoring the mainstreamed children in school.

6. Teacher appointment

The salary of the PTA teacher is paid by VEC from their own contribution. Teacher appointments are made by the Government for the permanent posts in the school.

7. Campaigns

Thousands of Awareness Campaigns and Melas are conducted every year by VEC to create awareness about the importance of education among the community. Door-to-door campaigns are also undertaken to ensure cent percent enrolment. These exercises have yield positive results in terms of substantial increase in Net Enrolment Rate (NER) in both Primary and Upper Primary sections during the last five years.

8. School improvement programmes

VECs/ PTAs actively participate in celebration of Independence Day (15th August), Children’s Day and Republic Day (26th January). Competitions are conducted for children in Dance, Drama, Singing, Painting, and Essay Competition are during such important days to encourage their participation.

Training to VEC Members

The VECs in Tamilnadu have been duly oriented in the areas of planning, implementation and monitoring of the educational interventions at school/village level. The members have been given orientation/training on their roles and responsibilities in SSA context. They have also been given exposure in micro-planning. The training has been helpful in inculcating a sense of community ownership among VEC members. Around 1.5 lakh members have been trained during the current year on quality construction, Monitoring teachers and pupils attendance, etc.

School Management Committee

Each Government and Aided Elementary school should constitute the School Management Committee. The members of the School Management Committee in Tamilnadu are Headmaster, Teachers, Students, Parents Teacher Association member or Parent, President of the Panchayat or Ward member of the area and the local educationists.

Rules and Regulations to be followed to constitute SMC

ü Minimum of 20 members should be appointed in the SMC

ü 75% of the strength of the said Committee shall be from amongst parents or guardians of children, with proportionate representation to the parents or guardians of children belonging to disadvantaged group and weaker section.

ü The remaining 25% of the strength of the Committee shall be from amongst the following persons namely:

· one third members from amongst local educationists or children in the school, to be decided by the parents in the said committee;

· one third members from amongst the elected members of the local authority, to be decided by the local authority;

· one third members from amongst teachers from the school, to be decided by the parents in the said committee.

ü 50% of the members of the committee shall be woman

ü To manage its affairs, the Committee shall elect a Chairperson and Vice Chairperson from among parent members. The Head teacher of the school or where the school does not have a head teacher, the senior most teacher of the school, shall be the ex-officio member-convenor of the committee meeting. In the case of an aided school, the school manager/correspondent/Secretary or his nominee from the School Committee shall be the Chairperson.

ü The Committee shall meet at least once in a month in the school premises and the minutes and decisions of the meeting shall be properly recorded and made available to the public.

Role and Responsibilities of the members of SMC

The Committee shall,

a) Communicate in simple and creative ways to the population in the neighbourhood of the school, the rights of the child, the duties of the State Government, local authority, school, parent and guardian.

b) Bring to the notice of the local authority any denial of the rights of the child, denial of admission and timely provision of free entitlements.

c) Ensure the enrolment and continued attendance of all the children from the neighbourhood in the school;

d) Monitor the maintenance of the norms and standards prescribed in the Schedule.

e) Identify the needs, prepare a plan, and monitor the implementation of the present scheme.

f) Monitor the identification and enrolment of and facilities for learning by disabled children, and ensure the participation in, and completion of elementary education

g) Monitor the implementation of the Mid-day meal programme in the school

h) Prepare and submit an annual account of receipts and expenditure of the school to the local authority within three months from the date of expiry of the every financial year.

i) Any money received by the committee for the discharge of its functions shall be kept in a separate account, to be made available for audit every year.

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE (SMDC)

The School Management & Development Committee should be constituted in every Government and Aided High and Higher Secondary Schools. The members of the SMDC are

Headmaster	1	Chairman
Teacher representative Assistant Headmaster (in-charge of IX & X) or Teacher	1	Member
Urban – (i) Ward member of the area in Corporation or (ii) Municipal Ward member of the area in Municipal limit or (iii) Ward member of the Town panchayat Rural – President/Ward member of the village panchayat	1	Member
PTA Representative	1	Member
Social Worker/NGO Worker/SHG Worker	1	Member
Total	5

Roles and Responsibilities

· Opening and operating Joint account – Chairman (Headmaster) and Member (PTA representative) Assisting the Chairman in transparent and effective utilization of grants released to school

· Collection of data under SEMIS

· Identifying the needs of the School

· Planning, Implementation, monitoring and evaluation of all School level activities.

· Taking corrective/remedial actions on all the components/intervention of the scheme infrastructural as well as academic and others at the school level.

· Conduction of Sports/games, organizing art, literary and creative activities for children

· Ensuring utility of Government welfare scheme to the children

· Encouraging the children to participate in the National and State Level Talent Tests.

· Planning for life skill development for children

· Completeness in school facilities and environment at all levels Institutional planning

· The Committee will maintain all the relevant records for recurring as well as non recurring expenditure.

· These records will be updated on a regular basis and placed before the committee in every meeting.

Preparation of School Development Plan

The Committee shall prepare a School Development Plan for every three years period comprising of three annual sub-plans:

The School Development Plan shall contain the following details:

· Estimates class-wise enrollment for each year

· Determines the required number of teachers for the classes 1to 5 as well as for the classes 6 to 8 as per the norms and standards

· Physical requirement of additional infrastructure and equipments over the three year period, calculated, with reference to the norms and standards

· Additional financial requirement over the three year period, year-wise

· The School Development Plan shall be prepared and signed by the Chairperson/Vice Chairperson and Convenor of the Committee and submitted to the local authority before the end of the financial year in which it is prepared.

PROVISION OF SCHOOL ACCESS IN TAMILNADU

Provision of school access to all habitation is ensured to enroll all school age children.

As per Household Survey 2005 there are 80,593 habitations, 8,713 are urban in Tamil Nadu.

Among the 80,593 habitations 79,944 habitations are served with primary schools, 247 habitations served by EGS(Education Guarantee Scheme) centers. The number of habitations not served with primary schools/EGS centers is 402. Number of habitation eligible for primary as per state norms is 210 and the number of habitation not eligible for primary but eligible for EGS is 83. The number of habitation not eligible for EGS is 109 which mean these habitations are scarcely populated and which do not have 10/15 school age children to start EGS canters.

Though all the eligible habitations are provided upper primary school access as per norms, there are deserving primary schools fulfilling the norms to be upgraded into upper primary schools for special reasons. The number of primary schools to be upgraded into upper primary is 338.

The number of habitation served with upper primary school is 80,220, number of habitation without upper primary school access within 3 k.m. is 395 number of habitations eligible for upper primary school as per distance and population norms is 338 which is eligible for upper primary.

The primary, upper primary ratio in the State is 2.70:1. The number of school eligible as per 2:1 norms is 5162. However, only 338 schools fulfill the norms for upgradation. The primary upper primary ratio after upgradation will be 2.64:1. The primary and upper primary ratio is high in Villupuram District. 5.60:1.

Access – Primary & Upper Primary

In Tamilnadu, it has been reported that 100 percent access at Primary level has been achieved during 2002-2003 and 100 percent access at Upper Primary level has also been achieved during the year 2004-2005. Nevertheless, with population growing and new habitations springing up the need for new schools is constantly reviewed. The School Mapping Exercise conducted during the current year has revealed that there are still some habitations which are in need of Primary Schools and Upper Primary Schools. There are also a few habitations which do not qualify for the opening of Primary Schools where the State proposes to open new EGS Centers. This effort is to provide additional access to enroll and retain girls and SC/ST children in the select pockets.

Opening of New Schools

During 2001-2002, 452 Primary Schools were opened and 197 Primary Schools were upgraded into Upper Primary Schools, and in 2002-2003, 304 Primary Schools were opened and 479 Primary Schools were upgraded into Upper Primary Schools. During 2003-2004, 356 Primary Schools were opened and 399 Primary Schools were upgraded into Upper Primary Schools and in 2004-2005, 1,031 Primary schools have been upgraded into Upper Primary schools. During 2005-2006, 162 Primary Schools have been opened and 684 Primary Schools have been upgraded into Upper Primary Schools.

As many as 1,274 new Primary Schools have been opened and 2,790 Primary Schools have been upgraded into Upper Primary Schools so far towards achieving the 100 percent landmark of access at both levels in the State. However, there are some habitations which are in need of Primary Schools. There are also a few habitations where the State proposes to provide additional schooling access on the basis of the SSA norm of Upper Primary – Primary Schools Ratio of 1 : 2 and to improve retention and reduce dropouts of especially Girls and SC/ST children in the select habitations.

Providing minimum facilities

Infrastructure Facilities in Tamilnadu

The construction of BRC buildings is undertaken by PWD. The community takes up all the other constructions - CRC buildings, two classroom buildings, three classroom buildings, additional classrooms, toilets and water supplies. The District Engineers in the DPOs do technical support to community constructions and monitoring of the quality of constructions.. Construction of classrooms with child-friendly elements, disabled child-friendly provisions like ramps have been ensured in both PWD and community constructions.

Various workshops have been organized over the years for the District Engineers by the State Project Directorate on soil condition, type of foundation to be provided, structural designs, procurement process, low cost and cost effective method of construction and good construction practices etc. Along with this, the District Engineers have been sensitized to monitor effective use of maintenance grant in the schools. An innovative project has been implemented ‘BaLA’ (Building as Learning Aid) during the year.

The VECs have also been oriented on the construction process, maintenance of quality construction, maintenance of accounts for civil work, procurement of materials and submission of utilization certificates.

The following Table gives the details of the target in civil works and its progress during the years 2001 – 2011.

Progress in Civil Works – 2001-2011

S.NO	CIVIL WORKS	STATUS OF WORK
S.NO	CIVIL WORKS	Target	Completed	Progress
1	Block Resource Centres	280	280	0
2	Cluster Resource Centres	2922	2922	0
3	Primary School Buildings	2554	2383	171
4	Upper Primary School buildings	5685	5239	446
5	Additional Classroom buildings	32063	28035	4028
6	HM Room	2646	1912	734
7	Toilets	17229	16911	318
8	Separate Girls Toilet	14847	7048	7799
9	Water Supply	12369	12058	311
10	Compound Wall	63740	48594	15146
11	Ramps	10703	10703	0
12	Electrifications	3910	3910	0
13	BaLA	360	360	0
	Total	169308	140355	28953

Of the 280 BRC buildings approved, 280 buildings have been completed. Out of the 2952 CRC buildings approved, 2918 buildings have been completed and the remaining buildings are in various stages of completion. Of the 2554 primary buildings approved, 2383 buildings have been completed and the remaining works are in progress. Of the 5685 upper primary buildings approved, 5239 buildings have been completed and the construction of the remaining buildings is in progress. Of the 2646 HM Rooms approved, 1912 have been completed and the remaining works are in progress. Of the 32063 Additional classrooms approved, 28035 have been completed and the remaining works are in progress. Among 17229 toilets approved, 16911 works have been progress. Of the 14847 Girls toilet approved, 7048 have been completed and the remaining works are in progress. Provisions of water supply have been approved for 12369 schools. Of these, 12058 works have been completed. Of the target of 10703 ramps approved, 10703 works have been completed. Of the target of 3910 electrification approved, 3910 works have been completed. Of the target of 360 bala approved, 360 works have been completed.

The 11^th JRM observes, “……Through 2002-2003 to 2009-2010, the community has contributed about Rs.104 crore for building construction, toilets, play material and other school needs like computer, library books, teaching learning equipment. In two of the schools visited the community had provided a PA system, water supply, sections of the boundary wall, and gifts for the children during school competitions and towards public functions at the school. In one school the community gave land and shramdaan for construction of the building, when it was being upgraded. Interactions with the community and Panchayat members revealed that they were pleased with the performance of children in the schools and wanted them to do better, so they felt that they must give something to the schools, which children needed. They felt that children’s learning was much more visible since the introduction of ABL and they were able to see the progress of their children while the class was on. In two villages the community was proud that none of the children was out of school…..”

The 11^th Joint Review Mission has interacted with the community members and their observation is as follows.

“…….Many VECs in Tamil Nadu have been playing an active role in the planning, implementation and support of educational interventions at school/village level. They have taken up construction, monitoring teachers and pupils’ attendance, etc. Annually, 30^th July is celebrated by all VECs as an Education Day during which parents and community members, elected representatives are invited to the schools to witness the learning and creative activities of children, especially girls. This has helped in creating awareness and value for girls’ education through extra-curricular and cultural activities. VECs have been active in making financial and other contributions to schools…….”

The above two observations of 11^th Joint Review Mission revealed that the achievements of SSA were possible only with the participation of the School Education Committees.