Student council
A student council is a representative student leadership body commonly found in primary and secondary schools, and in some post-secondary institutions. Student councils are typically composed of elected student representatives and officers who serve to express student engagement, facilitate communication between students and school administration, and organize student-led activities and events.
Overview
Student councils often serve to engage students in learning about democracy and leadership, as originally espoused by John Dewey in Democracy and Education.In many schools, student councils include representatives elected from individual classes or grade level. These representatives—commonly known as class presidents or class representatives—act as liaisons between their classmates and the broader student council. Their responsibilities typically include communicating class concerns, assisting with the planning of school-wide events, and supporting council initiatives related to student activities and student affairs.
Class representatives are usually elected by their peers within a single grade and may serve alongside other class officers, such as a vice president, secretary, or treasurer. While responsibilities vary by institution, class-level officers generally focus on activities specific to their cohort, whereas student council officers address school-wide matters and policy discussions.
Student councils exist in most K–12 state school and private school systems worldwide and are structurally distinct from students' unions found in governance in higher education institutions.
Function
The student council helps share ideas, interests, and concerns with teachers and institute administrative authorities. Councils frequently organize fundraising activities, school social events, community service projects, and initiatives related to school reform and student welfare.Student councils operate under various organizational models. Some are representative-based, while others are modeled loosely after the United States Congress or the executive branch of the federal government of the United States, with elected positions such as president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Officers are typically elected by the student body, though eligibility requirements may apply. In primary school, councils often include one or two representatives per classroom, whereas many secondary schools elect officers by per grade level or school-wide.
A student body president represents the entire student population across all grade levels and is generally responsible for broader leadership initiatives and school-wide coordination, often operating from a student center or common room.
Class officers
Class officers represent students within a single class or grade level. Unlike student council officers, who address school-wide concerns, class officers focus on activities and issues specific to their cohort.A class president commonly presides over class meetings, represents class interests to faculty or school administrators, organizes student activities such as school spirit, assemblies, student orientation, and fundraising events, and coordinates major events. Events such as school dances, homecoming, prom or graduation. The term of office is typically one academic year, with the option of re-election in subsequent years.
The class secretary is a position in student councils responsible for collecting trash and recording notes. They help the class leader record information on the class members, including class attendance and enrollment forms. The class secretary is supposed to pay close attention to the details and is required to have strong communications skills. Most educational institutions that hold a class secretary position also have a handbook for the class secretary. The class secretary helps ensure that all duties and meetings run smoothly.
Structure by school level
In elementary schools, student councils may include positions such as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, sergeant of arms, historian, fundraising officer, and grade-level representatives. Roles may be assigned or elected and often reflect seniority by grade.Middle school and secondary school student councils generally exercise greater independence and responsibility. They are often governed by a written constitution and overseen by a faculty sponsor, typically a teacher. Unlike collegiate student governments, most do not maintain a judicial branch.
Faculty advisor
Most student councils and class governments are supported by a faculty advisor, a faculty member who serves as a liaison between students and school administration. Sometimes a member of administration themselves, such as in secondary education, a assistant principal of student activities provides administrative oversight for the student government. Advisors ensure that council actions comply with institutional policies while allowing students to retain primary leadership responsibility.Key duties include managing student behavior, enforcing the code of conduct, serving as the steward for student body funds to ensure fiscal responsibility and proper documentation, scheduling and supervising extracurricular events like dances and graduation ceremonies, overseeing election processes for student officers, and evaluating club and class advisors. This position ensures all student-led events are safe, properly funded, and coordinated within the master school calendar.
Regional and national structures
Student councils can have institutional power, as in Spain and Germany, where they serve as a political force that mediates between students and educational institutions, or they can be elected or non-elected clubs dedicated to organising fund-raisers and events. Student councils can join larger associations, like in the United States, the National Association of Student Councils. In Canada, the Canadian Student Leadership Association coordinates the national scene, and in the United Kingdom an organization called Involver provides training, support, and coordination for the nation's student councilsA functional equivalent of student body president in some systems, such as the UK, Australia, and India, is the school captain. A school captain is a student appointed or elected to lead the student body of a school, usually in their final year. The role is similar to a student body president in the United States and represents students in interactions with faculty and the wider community. School captains are mainly found in British Empire legacy school systems: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, India, etc. In some schools, the captain may also hold the position of head prefect. The role is less common in the United Kingdom, where Head Boy and Head Girl positions are more typical. Captains are often recognized by a badge or other symbol of office. They are usually responsible for representing the school at events and will make public speeches.
Argentina
Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, most of the universities have a student council, regulated by law and the regulations of each university.Canada
In Canada, the student council is used for helping the school with special events and planning other events. Student councils in Canada also act as a body to advocate for student issues like tuition.Chile
In Chile, the centros de alumnos, also known as centros de estudiantes, are student organisations present in all the country's high schools and most of the primary schools. Their creation was contemplated since the enactment of the Ministry of Education of Chile's Supreme Decree #524 of 19 April 1990, although they have existed long before. Students' centers' goals are described by the ministry, in their Ayuda Mineduc website, as "serving their members, based on the purposes of the school and subscribed to the rules of student organization, as a way to develop their reflective thinking, critical judgment, and their will of action; to educate for the democratic life, and to prepare them to participate in the social and cultural changes."The centros de alumnos have the right to participate in the school council, and to actively participate, convoke a general assembly, in which all the students of their schools have to participate, and convoke meetings with the directors of the different classes of their high schools or schools.
China
In China, the head of a class is commonly known as the “class representative” or “class leader”. Additionally, there are often designated student officers for each academic subject.Finland
Secondary high schools, lukio, and vocational schools in Finland have student councils. They incorporate all the students of the institution, but their status is marginal, both locally and nationally. Legislation demands that they should be heard in all matters related to education in the institution, but this is often not done.Germany
Student representation is very important in the German school system. Each state in the Federal Republic of Germany has its own peculiarities in the system, but they are, by and large, similar. Although education in Germany is a matter for the federal states, there is a Federal Student Conference where all state student councils can elect delegates to participate and exchange views on nationwide problems that arise in education. Every school in Germany has a student council. In the case of major changes that affect school life, the student council must agree. According to the student council, every district or larger city has a District student council/City student council. At the municipal level, these councils deal with the school authorities and with the individual institutions, such as school offices, etc. Above this, there is a state student representation in each state, where delegates from each district/city of the respective state come to exchange ideas. This body is granted extensive rights, such as a budget of between €40,000 and €70,000 for material costs, but is also obliged to consult with the Ministry of Education when important decisions are made.Schools in parts of Europe such as in Germany and Austria, secondary schools use the term "student speaker" for schoolwide student representatives and "class representative" for classroom representatives.