Teacher evaluations set to begin

Teacher evaluations aimed at enhancing teachers` capabilities will begin at all primary and secondary schools across the country this month.

Fellow teachers, students and parents will participate in the evaluations through which high-performing teachers will be given a variety of incentives while underperforming ones would have to receive training to enhance their performance.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said yesterday that 16 education offices across the country have finished establishing basic rules governing the evaluation system, and that each school will begin implementing them this month.

Under the rules, each school should establish a committee tasked with managing the evaluation procedures by May. More than 50 percent of the committee members will be comprised of experts from outside the school -- including parents.

The committee will be charged with deliberating on the school`s detailed plans regarding matters such as who will be evaluated, and how many times and when they will be conducted.

Evaluations on individual teachers will be conducted from June and September. Fellow teachers, including principals, will evaluate individual teachers. Students` and parents` satisfaction with teachers` performance will also be included in the evaluations.



In the evaluations of rank-and-file teachers, there are a total of 18 evaluation indexes concerning their teaching and guidance skills. In the evaluations of principals and vice principals, there are eight indexes regarding their school management abilities.

Each school will send the evaluation score to each teacher between October and February next year.

The results will not affect teachers` salaries or promotion. However, to ensure the efficacy of the evaluations, the ministry will give research opportunities to high-performing teachers while underperforming ones will be pressured to receive training.

The ministry also plans to have each school post the evaluation results on its homepage. Noting that parents` participation is crucial, the ministry plans to actively promote the teacher evaluation system this month.

According to a recent ministry survey of 2,600 parents and 2,600 teachers nationwide, 86.4 percent of parents approved of the evaluation system while 69.2 percent of the teachers approved.

Also in the survey, 85.6 percent of parents said that the system would be effective in raising students` and parents` satisfaction with school education while 64.7 percent of teachers said the same.

Opponents have voiced concern over whether parents and students can render objective and unbiased evaluations.

(sshluck@heraldm.com)







By Song Sang-ho