Management of village schools in Punjab: Examining the role of community

Management of schools by community has always been viewed as important for improving education at the village level in India. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) assigned greatest importance to systematic mobilization of the community and creation of an effective system of decentralized decision making. The Right to Education Act 2009 also recognizes the role of local governance in school education by necessitating the formation of a School Management Committee (SMCs) in each school. Participatory management of school education have always been emphasized in all the education related policy documents in India in order to build a synergic relationship between the community and the government with a view to create a sense of ownership, better resource management and overall development at the grassroots level. In the above context, the paper intends to evaluate the performance of the School Management Committees (SMCs) in the state of Punjab as views by teachers as also the members of the SMCs.