Education ministry’s school management committee guidelines 2026 mandate 2 sub panels, 2-year term for member
The union education ministry on Wednesday issued “consolidated national guidelines” for School Management Committees (SMC) superseding all earlier directives, creating two dedicated sub-committees – “School Building “ and the “Academic Committee” – to separately oversee school infrastructure and academic functions, respectively, and also mandating uniform two-year term for its members.
The guidelines also lists the system of monitoring SMCs by the block and district education officers.
Releasing the school management committee guidelines, union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan stressed that the SMCs in schools need to act as a “bridge between the school and the community”, and called for the bodies to evolve into a social movement.
“The government has limitations when it comes to improving schools. The government will provide salaries, look into infrastructure needs, development of curriculum and pedagogy, but for a lot of other things there will be a need for an SMC. Can we not make this a culture that SMC becomes a ‘samajik andolan’,” said Pradhan.
SMCs are bodies with 75% representation of parents who are elected; teachers, MLA representatives and local educationists / ASHA / ANM / alumni and subject experts. The principal of the school is the member secretary.
Several state education ministers were also present during the guideline release – both online and offline. This will be available in 22 languages and the government hopes all the 15 lakh schools in the country will follow them.
Education Ministry: 2 SMC sub-committees
The SMC sub-committees may be constituted by the chairperson, vice chairperson, member secretary as per requirement.
The school building committee will be responsible for planning, estimation, management, monitoring, supervision, reporting and maintenance of accounts relating to construction, renovation, repair and maintenance of school infrasturcture. SMCs have the power to execute civil work costing up to Rs 30 lakh.
The Academic committee, on the other hand, will look into planning, management, monitoring, supervision, reporting, data collection for UDISE+. It will be monitoring teacher and student attendance, support guidance and counselling.
The new defined role of SMC also includes assisting the school in identification of Children with Special Needs by using the PRASHAST app and other methods.
SMCs’ important mandate is also to develop the School Development Plan, a three-year plan for the school comprising three annual sub plans.
SMC members’ two-year term
Addressing the inconsistencies in tenures across states, the new guidelines fix SMC members’ terms at two years. “A member can be re-nominated for another term but a member cannot remain in office for more than two consecutive terms except the member secretary,” stated the guidelines.
The membership may be terminated if the member is absent in four consecutive meetings without any information, migrates from the block/district, has a child who leaves the school or is detained/convicted on criminal charges.
The member secretary – the principal – has to hold SMC meetings once a month and ensure a minimum 50% quorum.
The guidelines also advise the states and UTs to have SMC in every school, including secondary schools up to Class 12 in place of the School Management Development Committee.
The block and district education officers should review SMC performance twice a year using simple checklists. The checklists include:
Number of meetings held
Attendance percentage
Decisions undertaken
Fund utilisation
In case of any disputes during election or functioning, the block education officer will also be responsible for settling the disputes.