KARACHI: Sindh government has finally approved a new format to evaluate performance of government schools’ teachers under which it will be judged on factors related to the teaching profession instead of generic metrics of the annual confidential report applicable to all civil servants of a certain grade, according to a press release issued by the Zindagi Trust, a non-profit organisation.

The approval was acknowledged and appreciated by Shehzad Roy, founder of the Trust.

More than four years ago, a team of the Trust had started brainstorming on creating real incentives for government teachers to adopt practices like lesson planning and positive interaction to improve their teaching, says Anam Palla, head of programmes at the Trust. “We decided to advocate for improvement of a document used to evaluate teachers which, as a school head back then, I had found to be limited, outdated, and, consequently, largely irrelevant.”

Stakeholders, including the provincial education and literacy department, held consultations over the years to develop a performance evaluation report (PER) form customised to the teaching profession. The form has sections on classroom management, planning and instruction and classroom assessments, allowing for teachers to be assessed on their lesson plans, on using student-centered activities, maintaining regular feedback through assessments, and on encouraging a positive classroom environment, to name a few categories, says the press release.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2021