Should Students Be Allowed To Grade Their Teachers

Students are the only true wealth of a nation and their education is the socio-moral responsibility of the country. To be educated is both their right as well as duty. From the gurukuls to the modern day schools, teaching and learning methodologies have taken a quantum leap. It is debated whether a system of grading of teachers by students should be introduced in schools to improve the learning and teaching environment. Let us observe the pros and cons of this idea and decide. If the system of grading of teachers by the school students is introduced, the teachers and the administration of the school will come to know about the performance of the teachers. It will give them an insight into the minds of the students and show whether the teachers are successful in getting their lessons understood by the students. It will evaluate whether the class atmosphere is conducive to aid their learning. It will measure the satisfaction level of the students. It will also encourage the good teachers to continue their efforts and motivate themselves. It will also expose those who are not doing enough and will lead them to correct their teaching mythologies as well as their attitude towards students . Thus the quality of teaching will certainly improve. Grading to measure the professional performance is very common these days in all the fields. So why not evaluate the performance of teachers by the grading given by the student? Many times students have problems with a teachers attitude but do not know whom to approach and how. The grading system will help them raise their voice by grading their teachers. It will make the lead towards positive changes at schools. But are the school kids mature enough to grade their teachers? Kids are young and inexperienced. They may not be able to judge correctly whether a certain teacher is good for them or not. Their parameters of grading may be too shallow. They may like or dislike their teachers depending upon the amount of homework he/she gives, the easiness of his tests, the leniency of the marking, their appearance, temper and such other things that appeal to the students and make the teacher a favorite among kids but do not generally reveal his effectiveness. But such an attitude is not good for the students in the long run. The grading may threaten the teachers and they may even change their attitude to score good with such students as their grade may be likely to spell the course of their teaching career. They may focus more on getting the right grades to sustain themselves in the competitive job market rather focusing on teaching the students with sincerity. Besides students are not administrators. Giving them such power to grade their teachers will also give them the opportunity to misuse it for their interest. They may lose respect for their teachers. It may also pave the way for staffroom politics and thus render the system useless. Also it may lead to students being penalized for having given bad grades to some teacher. They may have to face the consequences for having dared to give low grades. But with certain conditions and modifications, it can be made useful and free of faults. First of all, grading should be done by students who are above 10 yrs of age since those who are less than 10 may not understand the process very well. Secondly, students should be asked to mention the reasons for giving the grades to respective teachers. Grading process should include the parents to be part of it to make the grading meaningful. The reflection of the parents wisdom in the grades will make the system as useful as it can be. Their involvement will make the children more responsible towards the whole procedure. It is also very important to consider the parameters of grading. This includes his/her behavior-helping or rude, language - polite or abusive, temper, the way he keeps the class disciplined, his punctuality, utilization of time, paying attention to the whole class and not some students in particular and fair attitude to all students. A detailed grading system would ensure that all relevant points are being reported and the problematic areas are being brought to notice in a specific and direct way. Thus the entire score of the teacher will not suffer because of one wrong trait. It will also be easy for the teachers to recognize that trait and correct it by improving upon their methods. The school administration should also see that they are able to differentiate the right feedback from the wrong feedback.

Thus the students, parents and the school head should collectively and responsibly grade the teachers in a fair way. It is a promising concept and will yield surprisingly good results if refined and applied with the right conditions as proposed above. The future of the country depends upon how well the students are nurtured when they are in their formative years. The system of grading of teachers may prove to be a boon for the institutions who aim to nurture the hope of tomorrow. Anubha Gupta

Should Students Be Allowed To Grade Their Teachers

Alas! The prominent bonds of Central Board of Secondary Education exams have been broken down by Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation grading system. The introduction of Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation grading system is one way of reduction of overload over students during the reign of final exams in order to introduce a hidden personality to his own strange potential powers. Anyway I opt for this peculiar grading system only during the professional curriculum and at the beginning of the school age. Even though the overload on students had reduced embarrassingly. But, the CCE grading system will not be a great success if the teachers are not well trained actually training and everything are all done systematically. After all teachers should treat the students as friends without any drop of selfishness. Anyway all the homosapiens posses a mind of selfishness and also could emulate a particular personality. Introduction of the Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation system must be done in a systematic and exegesising manner otherwise it would be a great failure for the mighty Indian education system. Hence, it is the most observant fundamental duty of the administrational set up to train the assigned teachers to realize their students potential strength inorder to lead them into greater achievements. Even though , Kapil Sibal, Federal Human Resource Development minister has introduced this breath taking system along with suffering for its fame. The CCE grading system has adamantly proved that there were no provision that gave an opportunity to the intrepid students to grade their teachers. Miserably, some students believe in this fallacy of the Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation system. Our teachers are honorable elders who play the insignificant role of our guardians in the school. Since, they are elder than students they possess a better knowledge and lot more experiences. Providing the rights to the students to grade their valuable teachers is an act of embrocating which will only aid in emasculating the teachers from their honored responsibilities. A large mob of students in schools may be eagerly urging for such a fascinating provision for establishing a feeling of hatred towards the teachers. At all cost, grading teachers by the intrepid students contains many ill effects including the formation of a revengeful cloud on the teachers. Hence, I sternly oppose any of the provisions that allow the students to grade their teachers with an alarmed warning. Ajay Sethu

Should Students Be Allowed To Grade Their Teachers

The rise and downfall of a nation or society is directly related to the quality & spread of education. India, which is standing on an important threshold of emerging as a superpower, cannot ignore the need of providing its people universal access to quality & affordable education at all levels. The issues about quality are often neglected. This may be because the current concern about the government is to increase access to education. But neglecting this issue will only thwart the useful gains made till now. There have been several problems related to this specific education criteria. 1. Teacher Absenteeism 2. Lack of teaching aids 3. Inadequate training to teachers

4. Insufficient books and note copies available to students. In spite of several governmental programmes, not much improvement has been made. There have been several suggested solutions. Many of them range from frequent inspections, more government funding etc. But the best of all these undoubtedly is, evaluation by the students. Democracy is a beautiful principle. It allows the ruled to choose their rulers. Similarly, this can be used to improve the quality of education. Student evaluation at school & college level will be a breakthrough in quality education. The students can point out the faults of the system more accurately. They can tell what they did not understand, comment on lack of aids & teacher punctuality. The amount of books ad notebooks that would be required for good understanding can only be told by the students. The quality of a teacher can best be gauged by a student. Students can also comment on whether they are getting any time for recreational activities or extra-curricular activities. Through this not only the quality of education will improve, but the extra money which the parents spend on tuitions & coachings can be saved. We already have a system in several colleges, in which evaluation of teachers is done by the student. But this system has not proved to be a effective one. The evaluation forms are not analysed or no action is taken based on the results. Private colleges just try to fulfill the AICTE guidelines, but do not take any corrective steps. Likewise, inspections of schools have also not improved the teaching quality. The Central & State governments should jointly develop a supervising authority separate from the present education boards. These authorities should focus on teacher & school administration monitoring. Evaluation by students should be conducted solely by this authority on a regular basis. The sheets should be prepared scientifically & should be analysed by independent experts. These should then advise the schools and relevant education boards on new principles which should be followed and also action against incompetent teachers. The results should be freely available to the public through RTI. Along with this, evaluation by parents is also very important. Parent-teacher meetings should be regularly conducted. Parents should be allowed to access evaluation records of teachers and subsequent discussions should be conducted in the meetings. A former minister once called our Higher education the sick-child'. Even studies conducted by NASSCOM have commented that 90% of our graduates are unemployable. The research conducted by NGOs has found glaring discrepancies in the learning level of primary students. All this makes quality of education a very important criteria. Evaluation by students can improve teaching quality to very high levels. With the passage of Right to Education, it has become imperative that we should find new methods to increase access & to improve quality of education. Rahul Aggarwal

Should Students Be Allowed To Grade Their Teachers

A slogan in a world famous poster goes : Some people see things as they are and ask why ?. But I think of things that never were and ask Why not ?. The educational world, marred by falling educational standards and high teacher absenteeism rate is crying for an evaluation system for teachers by the students themselves. But narrow minded administrators and politicians disregard this notion. Cynics fear that children are not mature enough to grade their teachers and this system will hamper the teacher-student relationship. But I am an optimist. Contrary to popular perceptions, this system can yield dramatic results. The biggest benefit of grading teachers by students is : it will enhance accountability and responsibility of teachers. They will now be concerned more about the comprehension and understanding of students than completing the courses. The teachers will be aware that they will be judged directly by the students, not by any teachers union body, leading to better teaching standards. The students, equipped by the opportunity to evaluate the teachers, will be more passionate for their studies. They will be assured of quality education and a fair worth of their time and money. To cite a great instance of the effectiveness of the evaluation system, in the corporate world, the employees fill out monthly,

quarterly, semi annually and annual feedback forms. These are about their core work, team environment, training etc. They attend one-o-one sessions with their managers and discuss their short comings, opportunities for growth, etc. They are treated as, not only highly confidential but an essential content for growth and improvement. This system is the bedrock of the corporate culture. The corporate entities will stagnate and eventually decline if this system is not taken care of. Then, why not introduce this culture in the education world? The lesson learnt from the corporate world can be treated as a vision for the success for teachers and students. After all, the governments, corporate world, NGOs etc. do need capable citizens from the educational institutions to accelerate growth. The human resource is the most valuable resource of a nation and no stone shall be left unturned for its development. The grading system will also greatly reduce the difference in standards between the government and the private school teachers. According to the data released by UNICEF, teacher absenteeism in India in government teachers is very high compared to the private school teachers. The performance of students in these schools, is thus greatly hampered. The grading system will experience much better organised and effective follow up action, whenever any shortfall is noticed much in the lines of the corporate world. The teachers will be more sincere in making students apply the concepts and hone their skills. This grading system will face a number of hurdles to achieve complete success. The students may give biased feedback, driven by their own interest. The teachers may not feel motivated under this new environment and so on. To overcome this, the response from the students shall be kept highly confidential. To analyse the response from the students and the performance of the teachers, an independent committee must be formed that can handle a particular zone or region. The teachers showing the best and the most improved performance, shall be duly awarded by the local, state and the central governments. Before we introduce any system, a change in outlook and attitude is required to have belief in the mission undertaken. When the Indian government introduced the globalisation and liberalisation policy, many feared that the traditional Indian companies will be swallowed up by the giant MNCs. On the opposite, Indian companies today, are faring much better than our American and European counterparts. No doubt, the policy for grading the teachers also finds opposition from various quarters. And no doubt, as happened with the liberalisation policy, this will be also responsible for a new emerging India !!!! Atanu kashyap Adhikari