Teachers to evaluate principals
IT appears that the Education Ministry is studying suggestions to enable teachers to evaluate school administrators - principals as well as headmasters and headmistresses.
Personally, I think it is a good suggestion since the new Malaysia professes to practise accountability, transparency and credibility.
Presently, the school administrators are only evaluated by the District Education Office for their annual performance reviews.
Now we should consider lower-ranked personnel to evaluate the performances of their own superiors. Teachers and school administrators should complement each other to provide feedback both ways – down to top; not traditionally always top to bottom.
To implement it successfully, the Education Ministry should consult the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) and National Principals Council to come up with appropriate mechanisms and assessment parameters that are acceptable to all parties concerned, especially the principals who need to feel comfortable and open to receive positive as well as negative evaluations.
The instrument used to assess the principals should ensure the strictest confidentiality of the teachers lest the latter may face backlash from principals in view of possible adverse evaluations. The teachers should be allowed to submit their evaluations anonymously without prejudice.
Basically, the evaluation should only zero in on the principals’ professional performance in school, with the sole objective of improving the overall school performance, particularly in teaching and learning for the benefit of the students.
I believe this will be an improvement of the existing system as the teachers are always in contact directly or indirectly with the principals. Thus they are in the better position to evaluate the principals rather than the officers in the District Education Office.
The teachers’ evaluation forms could be submitted to the District Education Office to compile the report to be discussed with the respective principals.
However, the Education Ministry should also consider allowing the upper form students to evaluate their teachers’ performances as what is done in some colleges and universities.
If it is possible, parents too should be included to evaluate the schools’ performances to provide feedback from a different perspective for the school authorities.
All in all, if we are truly passionate about improving and upgrading the quality of our teaching profession, we should accept whatever evaluations positively with an open mind as long as they are done professionally with dignity and mutual respect.