Technical students to have say in teachers' appraisal

Students will soon have a say when it comes to the appraisal of the faculty members of the engineering colleges and other technical institutes.

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has come up with an online mechanism for collection of '360 degree feedback' on the activities and performance of each of the faculty members of the technical institutes.

For one-fourth of their total score on various parameters, teachers will have to depend on the good ratings from the students under the feedback collection programme launched by the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Wednesday.

The software, developed by the council in association with the Smart Cookie Rewards Pvt Ltd for the collection of the feedback about activities and performance of the teachers on various parameters, will be shared with all technical institutes across the country.

“Students feedback will eventually be made mandatory for determining salary increment and promotion of the teachers. This will be made part of our regulations soon,” an AICTE official told DH.

Of a total score of 100, student's feedback will fetch a teacher maximum of 25 points.

Under the new system for assessing their performance, the contribution of the technical institutes' teachers to society will also be counted, with the AICTE allocating a maximum 10 points for this.

Self-reporting of the teaching process will fetch the each of the teachers a maximum 25 points, head of the department's report on departmental activities 20 points, college principal's feedback and annual confidential report 10 points each.

“In many of the centrally-funded institutions, students feedback are already being taken for the assessment of the teachers. This is from the first time, we are bringing this component for the institutes recognised by the AICTE,” the technical education regulator's chairman Anil Sahasrabude said.

The software for the '360 degree feedback' programme is designed so that data collected from the technical institutes will not just reflect the teachers' performance but also that of each of the institutes.