Appraising teachers in a more nurturing manner

MP Louis Ng’s speech during the debates on MOE’s Budget

Reviewing teacher’s appraisal

In my budget speech I proposed to make our performance management system of stacked ranking more standardised, transparent, fair and formative for teachers.

There is strong feedback from the ground that ranking is not the best way to appraise all job holders.

There are differences in implementation across schools and there is a need for a more standardised appraisal system.

There is also a need for more transparency. Many share that they do not feel that the process of ranking has been made transparent to all teachers.

We can also make the system more fair by removing the quotas for C-, D and E grades.

Lastly, the appraisal system should be more formative than punitive. We should remove the punitive implications of getting the lower grades.

We should create a more nurturing environment for our teachers. I look forward to working with MOE and the unions to improve the performance management system of stacked ranking.

Giving teachers mid-term feedback

We all grow and learn from feedback. Our teachers are no different.

School leaders must give teachers who receive a C- or D grade feedback to improve their performance.

However, some teachers shared that this feedback only comes after the actual grade has been issued. Some say little is done to help teachers improve in the course of the school year.

Similar to how students have a mid-year exam to gauge whether they are on the right track, our teachers must also be given feedback prior to receiving their actual grade.

There are guidelines in place for ROs to give intermittent feedback. We should ensure these are strictly followed.

Will MOE strengthen processes for teachers to seek feedback on their performance.

360-degree feedback for all teachers

MOE currently uses the 360-degree feedback tool more as a developmental tool for leaders to gather feedback rather than an appraisal tool.

To further strengthen this process, can MOE consider incorporating this in the appraisal process and specifically linked to the performance grade.

There is strong support for implementing a 360-degree feedback to assess the effectiveness of Reporting Officers at all substantive grades.

Watch speech here.