School Management Committee (SMC) under the RTE Act, 2009: Composition, Functions and 2026 Guidelines

After the independence of India, there was an urge for a constitution to govern the nation which protected all the rights of the citizens of India and mentioned all the duties that the Indian citizens had towards their nation. In this article, we are talking about the right to education, which is now a fundamental right.

Article 45 of the constitution of India stated that the state should endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. Then the 86^th Amendment in the constitution of India made the right to free education for children between 6 to 14 years a fundamental right. In 2009, Parliament passed the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (assent on 26 August 2009); it came into force on 1 April 2010.

An Overview of the Act:

The RTE or the Right to Education is a detailed and comprehensive piece of good governance as it includes provisions for schools, teachers, the curriculum that is to be taught, evaluation, and most importantly the highlight on the School Management Committee. It marks the importance of good faculty, the procedure, the code of conduct of the school, and how parents are involved in the management of the school under the School Management Committee. The committee has to spread information about the Right to Education Act in the nearby areas so that most of the Indian citizens can be benefited from this act.

School Management Committee’s

School Management Committees are very well described under sections 21 and 22 of the RTE Act, 2009. S-21. (1) A school, other than a school specified in sub-clause (iv) of clause (n) of section 2, shall constitute a School Management Committee consisting of the elected representatives of the local authority, parents or guardians of children admitted in such school and teachers:

Provided that at least three-fourths of members of such Committee shall be parents or guardians:

Provided further that proportionate representation shall be given to the parents or guardians of children belonging to a disadvantaged group and weaker section:

Provided also that fifty per cent of Members of such Committee shall be women.

(2) The School Management Committee shall perform the following functions, namely:—

1. Monitor the working of the school;
2. Prepare and recommend the school development plan;
3. Monitor the utilisation of the grants received from the appropriate Government or local authority or any other source; and
4. Perform such other functions as may be prescribed.

Since 1 August 2012, an amendment (Act 30 of 2012) has added a proviso to Section 21: in a school established and administered by a minority, and in other aided schools, the School Management Committee performs an advisory function only.

S-22. (1) Every School Management Committee, except the School Management Committee in respect of a school established and administered by minority, whether based on religion or language and an aided school as defined in sub-clause (ii) of clause (n) of section 2, constituted under sub-section (1) of section 21, shall prepare a School Development Plan, in such manner as may be prescribed. (2) The School Development Plan so prepared under sub-section (1) shall be the basis for the plans and grants to be made by the appropriate Government or local authority, as the case may be

School Management Committees explained

The Very basic function of SMC is to monitor the working of the school, prepare and recommend the school plan and monitor the utilisation of the grants received from the government. Section 21(1) of the RTE Act itself sets the basic composition: the committee consists of elected representatives of the local authority, parents or guardians and teachers; at least three-fourths of the members must be parents or guardians; parents of children from disadvantaged groups and weaker sections must get proportionate representation; and half the members must be women. The Act does not fix the size of the committee or how its members are chosen; those details are prescribed in the rules each state makes, so they differ from state to state. In May 2026 the Ministry of Education issued fresh Guidelines for School Management Committees, which refer to the National Education Policy 2020, Samagra Shiksha and the RTE Act, as a reference framework for states and UTs. They suggest that the remaining 25% of members be split equally between elected members of the local authority, teachers of the school, and local educationists, subject experts, senior students, alumni or frontline workers such as Anganwadi, ASHA and ANM workers, and a size that depends on enrolment: about 12-15 members for up to 100 students, 15-20 for 100-500, and 20-25 above 500. States are also advised to have an SMC in secondary schools (up to Grade 12).

Under the 2026 guidelines, members serve for two years, the SMC should meet at least once a month, the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson are elected from among the parent members, and the Principal or Head Master is the Member-Secretary. According to this explanation, what SMC does is it decentralises the power from principal to teachers and from teachers to the parents.

But apart from all these good factors that School Management Committee holds, there are always two sides of a coin and a few more factors that majorly affect the functioning of the committee. The power to elect the members lies in the hands of the principal of the school. Due to this uneven decentralisation, the principal entitles less-educated parents to be a part of the Management Committee so that the school authorities can exercise their power as comfortably as they want to. This leaves a negative effect on the children and on the management committee. Due to this, the committee is unable to function properly as the principal holds the leash to the majority of the members of the committee.

Field research has also found limits on the committees’ practical powers. A 2012 study of government schools in Hyderabad by Accountability Initiative found that, although the procurement guidelines made the SMC responsible for civil works, the final sanction lay with the district office; requests for new classrooms waited months for approval; and construction was usually contracted out by the district, leaving the SMC little real role (Accountability Initiative, 2012).

Who should pay for the Act has been debated. Researchers Praveen Jha and Pooja Parvati argued in 2010 that the Centre should carry most of the burden because most states’ finances are weak (Economic & Political Weekly, 27 March 2010). The Act provides that the Central Government gives the states grants-in-aid as a percentage of the estimated expenditure, decided in consultation with them (Section 7(3)), and that it may ask the President to refer to the Finance Commission the need for additional resources for any state (Section 7(4)). (Part of the central money for school education comes from the education cess.)

The same paper pointed to a tension inside Section 7: sub-sections (1) and (2) make the Centre and the states jointly responsible for funding and have the Centre prepare the cost estimates, yet sub-section (5) makes the state government responsible for providing the funds to implement the Act.

Conclusion

The bureaucracy has infested the system and has become a roadblock in the pathway to achieving long-term sustainable education goals. The current needs of our education system can be met when the legislature takes stringent actions and maintains a system of checks and balances to ensure the highest standards of the SMCs. What can be done further to enhance the standard is to establish a reward-based system for each SMC and contest various tournaments in schools and colleges to promote Meritocracy. In a nation where the primary teachers are paid in negligible terms, the government has to realise that the need of the hour is to strengthen the building block of our society and the moulders of the future to achieve a Utopian structure in SMCs.

Sources and update note

This explainer was reviewed against the text of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (India Code, as amended) and the Ministry of Education’s Guidelines for School Management Committees (May 2026). State RTE rules can differ from the central guidelines; check your state education department’s rules for the exact composition in your school. This article explains the law; it is not legal advice.