Ranchi: School management committees are bringing sweeping changes across rural Jharkhand’s educational institutions and mindsets of people.

Under the provisions of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, every state-run middle school (from Classes I to VIII) is supposed to have the committee, but in reality few did before the Right to Education Act, 2009, mandated it aggressively, asking respective district education offices to monitor them.

Now, the positives in the middle schools in the state that have their committees in place – an eight-member panel comprising two teachers, two parents and two persons each from the panchayat and mahila samiti – are reaping wide-ranging benefits, The Telegraph reported.

This became apparent today when around 120 school management committee members from across 24 districts of the state assembled in Ranchi to share their experiences during a conference on RTE Realisation in Jharkhand, organised by the local organisation Jharkhand Right to Education Forum under the aegis of convener A.K. Singh.

Sharing his experience, a committee member Shankar Das of Mohanpur block in Deoghar, said they managed to convince parents and teachers to stop treating Dalit children differently and serve midday meals equally to all. “We noticed that Dalit children always sat at the back. But now, though the change took time, children are not segregated and eat and study together. Possibly due to this change, student enrolment has gone up from 60 to 180 now,” Das said, adding the committee also collected money for a boundary wall to keep trespassers and animals out.

Sukhdev Swami, a school committee member from Patia village in Gumla, had an equally heartening fact to share. “Our village experiences massive seasonal migration as parents go to Bengal and Bihar and stay on for months to work in brick kilns, which was a big reason for children to drop out of school. Now, we have started a seasonal migration hostel where 140 children stay and study. We also started book bank for the children.”

Dhaneswari Devi, a school committee member in Digwar village of Ramgarh, said they took the initiative to enrol girls in the Urdu middle school. “Girls were not allowed to go to school. But, we women members convinced parents why education was important for girls, showed them pictures of midday meals and textbooks distributed in schools,” she said. “We have managed to convince the parents of 400 girls now.”

Members from Chakadharpur town of West Singbhum said they convinced parents about the importance of sending children to school in the prescribed uniform to inculcate discipline. Now, not only do students come to school in clean uniforms, every class has library facilities maintained by students grouped under Bal Sansad made by the committee members.