STUDENTS IN GOVT SCHOOLS MAY GET TO RATE TEACHERS FROM THIS SESSION

NEW DELHI: The tables are about to turn. Students in government schools may soon get to assess their teachers, with the Centre asking officials to come out with a format allowing pupils to rate their classroom experience.

Students of Class 5 and above were likely to participate in the exercise the details of which were being worked out, sources said on Wednesday. The programme could be introduced this year. “The idea is to find out what students think about the way they are being taught,” an official said on condition of anonymity. “Rather than asking them questions, we are developing a system with a set of questions that will be distributed among students to rate the teachers.”

India has more than a million government schools. But, increasingly parents are opting for private institutions because of falling standards of education and poor facilities in state-run schools.

The plan for the evaluation exercise was discussed with a number of states and some agreed to it.

Initially the programme would be conducted in select states.

A model questionnaire would be prepared and circulated among these states for students’ feedback.

A team of human resources development ministry officials was working on the questions. Depending on the feedback, the exercise could become a regular feature, sources said.

“We want to have in place a transparent mechanism and want to reward teachers who are performing well too. At the same time, those who are not delivering will have to mend their ways,” the official said. Teachers would be provided training to help them improve.

The proposal could face resistance from teachers, so the government was looking at a plan that would be acceptable to them as well. Teachers will also be rated on how the students’ perform.

Learning outcomes had been circulated and would be implemented from this academic session, government said on Wednesday.

Teachers would not only be assessed on the marks obtained by their wards but whether a child can recognise a word, can write a sentence, is able to narrate a story, another official said. Learning outcomes are benchmarks to assess students’ progress.

“A chart will be prepared for each student and performance on various parameters will be marked on that to assess the teacher,” the official said.

To improve quality of schooling and teachers, the HRD ministry has introduced steps like learning outcomes to promote critical thinking.

College and university students were in 2016 allowed to evaluate teachers but only those with 75% or more attendance could participate. The proposal is yet to be implemented