A fair assessment needed, says NUTP--the star 19 May2010

TEACHERS must be allowed to compete for awards on a level playing field, according to Penang NUTP chairman Lim Ming Tzong.
He said this would prevent a scenario where only teachers from controlled schools such as Penang Free School, St George’s Girls School and Chung Ling High School could end up bagging all the awards and incentives.
Lim said that non-controlled schools were unable to compete with controlled schools due to a stricter academic requirement with regards to student intake.
“The government should implement an integrated all-rounded system to assess the performance of schools,” he said after attending the state-level Teachers’ Day celebrations at SMK Air Itam in Penang on Monday.
Responding to Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on incentives for high performance teachers, Lim said the government only regarded the school with the highest score in terms of academic achievements.
On the integrated system, he explained that a student should be well balanced in terms of physical, spiritual and intellectual aspects.
“Therefore, it is vital to incorporate these aspects in the assessment of school performance. We need schools to produce students who are good in all these areas rather than merely churning out As in public examinations,” he said.
Lim believed that putting the same amount of weightage on academic and non-academic elements would greatly benefit the evaluation system.
“If this form of assessment can be put into practice, I’m sure that many principals and teachers would be very happy. Otherwise, future educationists would compete to enter controlled schools to gain monetary awards or to have a chance at gaining them,” he said.
He also suggested that the Education Ministry implement a different set of assessment for both controlled and non-controlled schools to ensure that teachers would be assessed equally.