TN forms State-level panel to address schools’ demands

CHENNAI: The School Education Department has formed a State-level monitoring committee (SLMC) headed by the Chief Secretary to fulfil the demands put forth by the school management committees (SMC).

Other than the Chief Secretary who will serve as the chairman, the committee will also have on board the Secretaries of various departments like Finance, Public Works, Health and Family Welfare, Youth Welfare and Sport Development, and also TN Model Schools as members.

The SLMC will monitor the infrastructure, teaching-learning, enrolment and retention, and school management. The committee will meet once in three months for discussions.

“SLMC is formed to address and resolve the requirements raised by the SMCs. Also, it is intended to serve as a unified platform, incorporating representatives from diverse departments within the State government. Its primary goal is to facilitate collaborative efforts and streamline communication channels, thereby effectively addressing and resolving the challenges confronted by the schools,” the department said in a notification.

For the identification of the infrastructural requirements of the schools, the government has instructed the State project director of Samagra Shiksha, the director of school education and the director of elementary education to take stock.

The combined team will identify the infrastructural needs like construction, maintenance, repair and demolition of school buildings, based on the resolutions adopted by SMC of the respective school that are made available through TNSED mobile app.

The member secretary of Tamil Nadu Model School had proposed the creation of the State-level committee to address and resolve the requirements of school management committees. For this, the SMC was reconstituted in April and July 2022, and parents and teachers presented the needs for the children and adopted resolutions. These requests have also been recorded in the TNSED parent mobile application.

The SMC was conducted in 2,689 high schools, 2,598 higher secondary schools, 6,359 middle schools and 21,904 primary schools, all amounting to 33,550 schools. In the last 14 months, the department received as many as 3 lakh requests from these 33,550 schools from across the State, it said in the notification.