Teachers are the foundation stones of our children’s learning and development. Teachers not only promote important life skills and influence how much children enjoy school but also provide the right environment for learning and development.
Teachers in the developed countries undergo an annual performance review. I, as a training manager in my company along with all my fellow colleagues, undergo an annual performance review.
Every year, our performance is rated as Far below Expectation, Below Expectation, Meets Expectation, Exceeds Expectation and Far Exceeds Expectation. It is important that every teacher, every year in India, undergoes an annual performance review and there needs to be an ongoing professional development support throughout their teaching careers.
Our Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh needs to be complimented for taking the historic decision to improve the quality of education in our country.
The great decision to have a system of continuous assessment of teachers and ensure participation of parents to keep a check on the quality of teaching needs to be appreciated. Reviews of the teachers could be led by the principal, a senior teacher and a member of the Parent Teacher’s Association who are certified to conduct the reviews.
Observation of classroom performance, student results and feedback from both parents and students could be the salient features of the review of the teachers in India. The review process should allow the teachers to demonstrate their high performance. It should also provide opportunities to improve their skills where required. Teachers in our country should be given a set of documented, measurable and specific goals that will be agreed with their school principal or an authorised delegate. Teachers should be encouraged to collect evidence that they are achieving their objectives.
Besides the curriculum and educational materials, we need to look at the quality of teacher training and ongoing professional development in our country. It is very important to know that we have a clear picture of what is happening in the classrooms of our schools, where there are gaps and do we have the right structures and support.
Today, in our country, we have teachers with rich experience of many years in teaching but who have not had any follow-up training since they completed their Bachelor’s Degree in Education. I would like our teachers to see the challenges as opportunities. It will great to see all the teachers embracing the change of monitoring the quality of education in our country.
Teaching is not just a job. Teaching is a great mission to transform the life of a child. It is the front line of giving children life skills to finish school and succeed in life.
Teachers in schools need to support and nurture the students as much as they do with their own children.
As a teacher and a trainer at heart and as a father, I know how important it is for children to have skills like reading, writing and public speaking or getting trained in a particular sport like football, cricket or chess. All teachers are working hard to teach these skills but we also need to be creative with how we help the students learn. so they have every opportunity to succeed.
