CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Bonus pay tied to scores for Teachers

Shenali Waduge

The role of any teacher we would all agree is an arduous one. Handling over 20 to 30 children is likely to test any person’s patience & one can imagine how it must be to teach children with different absorption levels. Therefore, we should never undermine the service rendered by teachers anywhere across the globe. But, there are many teachers who can stand above these challenges to perform under trying circumstances & produce excellent students who would always marvel at the manner in which these teachers handled them. Then there are also teachers who prefer to meekly attend to the chore of teaching & just complete the school curriculum without creating the love for learning amongst the students. Would it then be fair to reward both type of teachers in the same manner? No one would or should grudge any recommendations for teachers to be rewarded according to a “merit pay program”.

A merit pay program would differentiate good teachers from others & would also serve as an inducement for other teachers to seriously review the manner they approach teaching & for them to perhaps consider changing the way they teach. It is not impossible for all teachers to fall under a merit pay program. Just imagine how great a fete that would be to have all school going children of Sri Lanka doing extremely well in their studies and journeying towards becoming good citizens of the country. The gratitude to all these teachers would be overwhelming especially to see children from the North, East, South or West of Sri Lanka doing well in life.

Presently, the calls to end corruption, violence, discrimination etc all boil down to the need for a change in perceptions & the best way we can create that change is to influence the children to think differently from the older generation who are finding it extremely difficult to compromise on their ideologies. Thus, it falls upon schools & the teachers to take up this task so that the correct message is imparted upon these children throughout their years of formal education. One can imagine how easy it would be to misguide these children & we have evidence of such looking at the present higher education system where youth use only violence to demand & obtain by force & violence what they feel is right irrespective of other’s opinions altogether.

Returning to the topic of merit pay we should note what was described as a historic deal in New York recently when the Teacher’s Unions agreed to introduce the merit pay programs for teachers on their classroom performance rather than seniority or academic degrees. This was heralded as something historic which has been looked forward to by all States of America.

Without dilly dallying with the problem at hand it is time the Ministry of Education put a firm foot down to resolve issues they have helped aggravate over the years by turning a blind eye or passing the parcel using the political slogan of blaming the political party in power & the Minister in Charge.

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