Now students will have a say in teacher evaluations

Thanks to the fundamental changes brought in the API by Smriti Irani led HRD ministry, in a first, college students will have a say in evaluation of teachers.

The HRD ministry has brought major changes in the way the performance of those in the teaching profession is assessed.

Changes made:

According to PTI, the procedure of changing the extant criteria of Academic Performance Indicators (API) scores, which heavily depended on co-curricular activities and research in the evaluation of teachers, has been initiated and a notification will be issued soon, officials said

"As per the new norms, students who have an attendance of 75 percent, will be able to give feedback of their teachers. The predominant weightage in evaluating teachers has been given to their teaching, learning and evaluating capacity," a senior HRD ministry official said

Reasons for changing the API criteria:

Under the previous criteria of API scores, a 30 percent weightage was given to co-curricular activities and another 30 percent to research, the official said.

Various teachers' bodies have agitated against the API system introduced in 2010, since they believed it was not fair.

"The result of making research an essential component on the basis of which a teacher would be assessed and promoted, was that a lot of substandard in not very significant journals took place. Moreover teachers who focused more on teaching than say on extracurricular activities like refereeing a basketball match sometimes found themselves at a disadvantage," another HRD official said.

Also various colleges, including many in rural areas, lack the adequate support for research, officials said.

What's new?

The rigidity of the previous system has been reduced

Now, it has been decided that co-curricular activities and research would be measured separately as well as together and there will be no capping in research

Accomplishments like presentation of paper on various subjects will now also fetch weightage

"The main focus of the changes that we are bringing in this criteria is that a teacher's performance should be linked with-- how well does he teach," a senior HRD official said.

Source:-  Indiatoday