Govt mulling changes in selection criteria for state teachers’ award

The state government is considering making some changes in the selection criteria and the process to select candidates for the annual State Teachers Award. In a major change, a state-level committee will now do the entire selection and evaluation of the candidates. Until now, district-level committees would go to the schools of the teachers, who had applied for the award, to evaluate the performance of their students.

“There will be more uniformity and fairness if the same team does evaluation in all schools,” said an official. “It will be similar to the selection process for the award at the national level, where teachers send their applications and the same team evaluates all candidates,” he added.

The government is also considering reducing the weightage given to teachers whose children study in government schools and those who have served in tribal and hard areas. “The current weightage given under these two parameters is keeping many good teachers, who do not fulfil these two criteria, out of the race for the award. So, there’s a thought that the weightage under these two parameters should be reduced to a level where good teachers not fulfilling this criteria have a fair chance to win the award,” the official said. Besides, the Education Department is also toying with the idea of giving awards to institutions. — TNS