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India is a country where teacher-students have a unique relationship. Thought with this growing modernization and commercialization of the education there had been a change in the relation between a teacher and student. These days it is really different from what this relation use to be during earlier times. But still, since our childhood, we have been taught by our religion and elders that a teacher and students have a spiritual relationship that is not limited to only academics, but it’s a lifetime bonding where a teacher is a spiritual father to his students. A teacher is the one who teaches you anything that helps you to make your life better. From the gurukuls or ashrams to the modern day schools, teaching and learning methodologies have taken a quantum leap in every part of the world. It is debated whether a system of grading of teachers by students in schools is really efficient to improve the learning and teaching environment.
The closeness of the relationship among teachers and students allows the students to have the right of evaluating their teachers provided they do so without being rude or disrespectful to them. Moreover, this grading of teachers should be just for the sake of improvement in teaching style, course content etc, rather than followed by some personal grudge or favouritism towards anyone in particular. It is necessary for the students to perform this thing in an impartial manner. If taken and performed positively, this evaluation is going to work for the progress of not only teachers, schools, colleges, universities, but also for students.
The evaluation should be done in such a manner that from these evaluations, teachers will come to know what students like or dislike the teaching methodology used by them and their content. The evaluation should also help to realize which topics are difficult or easy from the students’ point of view. Teachers tend to discover which activities are more enjoyable for students, effective and motivating for students to learn more and better. Basically, this can be the time when students extend their valuable feedback to their teachers without any evil thought. Also, teachers find out the ways that reach out to students and avoid the ways that don’t, e.g. they can change the way they deliver a lecture or they can facilitate students to participate in activities they like. This all will contribute to the quality of teaching and the teacher-student relationship.
Grading teachers as we discussed earlier in the process by which the teachers and the administration of the school will come to know about the performance of the teachers. Here students give in their valuable feedback which serves as the basis of the teacher evaluation. This feedback given by the students give an insight into the minds of the students and show that to what extent the teachers are successful in getting their lessons understood by the students along with that it will also help to evaluate whether the class atmosphere is conducive to aid the process of learning. It will measure the satisfaction level of the students. It will also encourage the good teachers to continue their efforts and motivate themselves. It will also expose those who are not doing enough and will lead them to correct their teaching mythologies as well as their attitude towards students. Thus the quality of teaching will certainly improve. The question may be asked in the form of:
Grading to measure the professional performance of teachers is very common these days. Competition is increasing day by day and everyone wants the best. These days every parent wants the best education for their children and teacher evaluation is the part of building the quality teaching staff. A lot of times students have problems with a teacher’s attitude but do not know whom to approach and how. The grading system will help them raise their voice by grading their teachers. It will make the lead towards positive changes at schools. But the only fear is that the students may not use it to settle their grudges against a teacher who scolded them at some point of time or caught them doing something wrong.
Before we give out such a huge responsibility to them, it is also important to note that are these students mature enough to grade their teachers? It may come as a huge opportunity for them, but at the same time, it is also true that these kids are young and lack the experience of life. They may not be in a situation to judge correctly whether a certain teacher is good for them or not and may judge them wrongly if they are being strict towards studies, without realizing that this strictness is for their own betterment and in contrast, may give some really nice feedback for a teacher who doesn’t take his job seriously and is never interested in teaching. Their parameters of grading may be too shallow.
Students may like or dislike their teachers depending upon the amount of homework given to them, the leniency of the marking in tests, their appearance, temper and such other things that appeal to the students and make the teacher a “favourite” among kids but do not generally reveal his effectiveness. There are also many factors that cannot be seen by administrators during an evaluation like how helpful teachers are outside the class, how quickly teachers give feedback to students, how challenging the homework is. Obviously, if you ask students very general questions, like "Is your teacher a good teacher?", then the answers will reflect "popularity", but if some specific questions are asked, like "Does your teacher grade your tests quickly?" or "Does your teacher give you comments on your papers?" then that can be a bit different from the usual affair.
Students need to be really sincere while grading their teacher, as these grades won’t entirely affect the fate of their teacher, hence they should not do this thing with a feeling of revenge, and such an attitude is not good for the students in the long run. The grading may threaten the teachers and they may even change their attitude to score well with such students as their grade may be likely to spell the course of their teaching career. They may focus more on getting the right grades to sustain themselves in the competitive job market rather focusing on teaching the students with sincerity.
A lot of people don’t approve the idea of evaluation of teachers by the students because they believe that the personal grudges or favouritism on the part of students will affect a teacher’s evaluation. A good teacher is always one maintains the discipline in the class and teaches well his/her topics. It is no doubt that most of the students don’t like to study, so obviously they’ll hate a teacher who makes them study and also does not allow them to play any mischief. Educators from around the country have varying opinions about incorporating student feedback into official evaluations. Some think it’s a good idea, while others think it’s a dangerous model when educator jobs are on the line. Besides this, students are not administrators. Giving students the power to grade their teachers can be quite dangerous and this will also give them the opportunity to misuse it for their interest. Students may lose respect for their teachers because of this system. It may also pave the way for staffroom politics and thus render the system useless.
This may also prove dangerous for some students also as it may lead to students being penalized for having given bad grades to some teacher. Students giving out bad grades may have to face the consequences for having dared to give low grades to teachers. It would also not be wrong to say that this is the work of the administrative staff and students should be kept away from this stuff and allow them to concentrate well on their studies.
Suggestion
In my opinion the evaluation of teachers by the students this is a good idea but there should be some modifications that are needed. There is no doubt that it can really help out the professors and show them what areas they need to improve in and what they need to alter in their coursework. However, I think this system can also be really awful, too. Sometimes students don't really understand the consequences of their actions when giving someone a bad rating. Or at times students group up and write inappropriate stuff about the teacher which may even affect their job at times. There should be criteria for grading. First of all, only the students who attended a minimum number of lectures should only be allowed to grade teachers. This measure will help to get out about 50% of the anti-social section of students who think of grading as a chance to bully their teachers.
The grading form of the students should also have their name and signatures, this prevents students from writing hurtful and inaccurate representations of the professor, and these forms should be kept away from professors and to be reviewed only by the management. Other figures such as results of the students and participation in extra activities should also be taken into account when evaluating a teacher. Management should try to have an open session with the graduating students and the teachers so that the allegations may come face to face and if there are any explanations then those can be made on the spot. If a student is caught involved in anything wrong by a teacher, in that case, the student should not be allowed to grade that particular teacher.
