FDE introduces new appraisal mode for teachers

Teaching, non-teaching staff welcome move

ISLAMABAD:

The Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has introduced a new performance appraisal system for teachers.

According to the official sources, the FDE has issued new SOPs/ guidelines to write the annual restricted reports (AARs) previously known as annual confidential reports ACRs) of teaching and non-teaching staff working under the FDE for the year 2021.

According to the new guidelines, the director concerned will write the ACRs of principals of BPS-19 or BPS-20 as the reporting officer and the FDE director-general or deputy director-general will countersign the ACRs being the countersigning officer.

Similarly, the ACRs of associate professors/vice-principals will be written by the principal concerned (as a reporting officer) and will be countersigned by the concerned director (being a countersigning officer).

The vice-principal of the institution has been authorised to write the ACRs of assistant professors, lecturers and teachers of grade-16 and grade-17.

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Principals will be the countersigning officers, All the reporting officers have been directed to furnish the ACRs of all teachers to the countersigning officers by January 31.

The countersigning officers will submit all the ACRs/AARs in one lot to administrative officers of the FDE by February 28. Previously, area education officers (AEOs) were authorised to evaluate the annual performance of BPS-19 officers such principals, vice-principals and associate professors.

AEOs were also responsible to countersign the ACRs of lecturers (BPS-17) and assistant professors (BPS-18). This process was nothing but an empty exercise since it failed to internalise teachers’ performance results because AEOs had not had sufficient information about the teachers.

Federal Government Colleges’ Teachers Association (FGCTA) President Dr Rahima Rahman has welcomed the move and said that the FGCTA demanded that principals and vice-principals should evaluate the performance of teachers instead of AEOs because the former has instant knowledge of teacher’s performance.

“We, the college teachers, are thankful to FDE authorities, particularly the DG who has taken the measure to improve the evaluation system of teachers. However, there is still room for improvement,” she said adding that monitoring the performance of teachers was a complex task that needed flexibility. “The evaluation of performance based on subject results and biometric attendance is not an objective criterion. Many dedicated teachers have poor results of their students because of the nature of subjects or poor intake of students by the institution,” she said adding that it did not mean that the teacher was incompetent.

Dr Rehman said that the key was to understand how effectively and efficiently he/she has performed for the year.

Jabir Hussain, press secretary of the association said, “Unfortunately some of the reporting officers do not always evaluate the teachers on objective criteria because of personal liking or disliking. Our eight teachers have been deprived of their due promotions based on average ACRs.” He said that if their performance was not satisfactory five years ago, why were they not informed at that time? They came to know about it when their names were dropped in the list of promoters.

“When such deficiencies appear in the evaluation system, it frustrates the teacher, reduces the teacher’s motivation and creates a perception of unfairness. So teachers’ performance should be evaluated fairly, consistently and objectively and they should be informed about their ACRs annually,” he demanded.