Something seems to be stirring in the Department of Education at last as measures are announced to enact a performance management system to combat the poor quality of education delivered in community schools.
The DoE Director General (DG) Lava Dev Awasthi has announced that the government is planning to make teachers more accountable in community schools by implementing a "Grade Teaching System. For each of grades 1,2,3 there will now be one teacher who would teach all subjects.The DoE said that a circular has been sent to all schools across the country to arrange grade teachers for students of grades 1, 2 and 3.
The DoE Director Tek Narayan Pandey further stated that from now onwards the government school teachers would be tightly monitored and evaluated based on the achievements of their students. Previously the government had not tried to hold teachers accountable nor have the teachers attempted to apply new teaching techniques, which are the major causes behind the decreasing charm of public schools, added Pandey.
“In future, the district education offices will have to prepare progress reports of both students and teachers from each school and submit to the Department of Education. If students score poor marks in a particular subject, the teacher in question would be given warnings to improve their teaching techniques. We will provide them with training if they need it,” Pandey claimed.
The government can cut grants to schools that fail to show improvements over time.
And so, although I have known Dr Awasthi since early 2010 and probably been a thorn in his side ever since, I must give credit where it is due. Here is my "open letter" to him sent today:
"Dear Lava
I have just been reading about your implementation of a Grade system for grades 1,2,3 in community schools and a clear performance management system with teachers being monitored by DEOs and held accountable for meeting standards. This is a very big step forward and one that I agree with totally. I congratulate you on taking this action which if professionally implemented will have a massive effect on uplifting quality in your schools.
When we first met in 2010 and created our first MoU, the SSRP had just been published. It is full of teacher/principal development issues and the Annex contains a set of Teacher Standards with section 2.c stating that "Quality of teachers is ensured by assessing their performance and providing them opportunity for professional development". It is encouraging to at last see positive steps being taken to implement something so important to your overall strategy.
If you recall it was on the basis of the SSRP that we at Nepal Schools Aid expanded our programmes of teacher training across the Valley. We created a wide range of modern teacher development programmes which we delivered to 400 teachers in 2012. We worked with 86 schools and tried to engage outwards into Terai, Jhapa, Nuwakot and other areas. We have shown our programmes to NCED and offered to hand over all of our specialised materials once 5 of their master trainers receive input from us, but we have not received any firm decision from them. In fact we set up the new NSA to assist in the delivery of the SSRP and I want to reaffirm our commitment to you and to that task with my staff in Kathmandu available to help in any way they can.
We look forward to continuing our work in Nepal and trust that your implementation of teacher performance management and NSA's continued teacher development work will bring to fruition everything that is desired in the reform of your education system.
Best regards
Brian"
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