Teachers’ bonus: A behind-the-scenes look |20 September 2017

It was only last week that the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Wavel Ramkalawan, brought forth the concerns of several teachers on the new Teacher Appraisal Policy and bonus system implemented by the Ministry of Education.

Their main criticism was that the pass mark of 75% was much too high and discouraged many teachers who were not able to reach that level and benefit from a bonus. Some teachers considered the performance-related system as unfair while others said the appraisal started with the right intention and merely needs to be modified.  

In response the Designated Minister Macsuzy Mondon, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Human Resource Development Joel Morgan, said the ministry will consider lowering the standard to 60%.

Some supply teachers have also expressed the opinion that they have been overlooked.

A teacher assistant at a primary school in the south of Mahé, who has to take up a part-time job to make ends meet, said she has been working for 47 years in this position and feels extremely discouraged.

“At the very least we should have had our own system. We contribute as much in the classes as regular teachers especially when we have to cover classes in their absence.”

Seychelles NATION attempted to look further into this system and found, from the onset, a process of evaluation riddled with complexities.

Introduced in 2014 as one of the elements in the ministry’s bid to reform education in the country, this first stage of the new appraisal system was a long process which spanned from 2014 to 2016.

According to a primary school co-coordinator the first cycle 2014-2015 was dedicated to monitoring teachers to “see if they were improving” while the second cycle (July 2015-July 2016) was for evaluation and final assessments.

“Before this teachers were appraised by their head teachers and received a small compensation of R600 maximum depending on their performance. Of course some got less,” one teacher explained.

But this new Teacher Appraisal Policy system promised much more than R600 - those who were able to get a result of 75% or more would receive a bonus of around R6,000 onwards.

However not all teachers chose to embark on this appraisal system.

“They had the options to either participate or not; it was not mandatory. Those who did not consent were made to sign a document that they were not going to be appraised and hence will not be entitled to a bonus,” the studies coordinator elaborated.

“It is only now that some teachers are second guessing their decision and realise they could have benefitted from such a bonus.”

But why did a portion of teachers not agree to be appraised?

“It’s a lot of paper work and quite demanding. Maybe that is why some teachers opted out,” replied the studies coordinator.

Under the appraisal system teachers were required to choose two areas of strengths and two areas for improvement from three domains from the Teacher’s Performance Plan (TPP). These domains were professional attributes, professional knowledge and professional skills.

Their responsibility was to work and improve on their six weaknesses so as to be awarded points which ranged from 1 to 4: 1 being the lowest and 4 being the highest.

Another component in the TPP included evaluation of teachers’ attributes and job requirements using the same rating as above.

The third and final component consisted of personal targets teachers wanted to meet and which they had to have three in total. However some wrote only one or two, and others did not even write any personal target.

With the total pass mark being 45 points on 60 (afterwards converted to percentage) this would mean that those teachers passed up the opportunity to accumulate as many points as possible.

One primary teacher who has been teaching for over ten years said the bonus acts as a financial incentive to improve performance but also remarked that others will disagree with her.

“I get their point. Only around 400 teachers passed and received the bonus, so what do you say to the other teachers who have been trying? They have basically failed after all. What this tells them is that they are not working hard enough and honestly that is not a good message given that they are already working with difficult children and lack of resources,” she stated.

A former secondary teacher who left teaching a few months ago said that the idea of having an appraisal system is the right path towards upgrading the quality of our teachers but unfortunately the Teachers Appraisal Policy leaves a lot to be desired.

“It was implemented without most teachers’ input. We were not consulted on how they were going to appraise teachers. I even knew teachers in management who were appraising their colleagues with doubt as how to do so.”

“For those who have been trying it kills their spirit and motivation. It takes a lot of sacrifice to enter those gates day in and day out and to deal with all the circumstances beyond their control. Everyone deserves, give them what they deserve,” he added.

His conclusion, a sentiment shared by several other teachers, is that it is not all about the money for teachers but rather being valued and being provided with the necessary mechanisms to give the best of themselves.

E.P.