Teach Middle East Magazine June 2014 Issue 2 Vol. 1 | Page 13

Vox Pop C T I V E S Why are teacher evaluations vital to you? PARENTS Dr Sujith Mathew, Paul Chappel, Dr Kripa Bhandarkar, As a parent, teacher evaluations are important to me because they indicate the school’s interest in fostering good teachers. They provide teachers with opportunities to fine tune their knowledge and skills to suit their students. Finally, in effect they ensure that my child’s pedagogical requirements are in good hands. Any profession gains credibility and earns respect when a thorough, objective evaluation is regularly performed on members of the group. It assures parents and administrators of the identification of both strong and weak performers thus allowing recognition of good performance and additional training for poor performers. Learning is a lifelong process and evaluation will help teachers to keep abreast of changes which in turn will benefit our children. As the saying goes, ‘the illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.’ Dennis K Mutasa, Amy Kellogg, Hussain Al Jaberi, Teacher evaluations are important because they help to ensure high quality performance by teachers resulting in high quality teaching and learning for my child. Evaluations keep the school in check. Teachers get opportunities to notice areas for professional development, which would in turn benefit the education of my child. The most important thing to me is to know that my child is being engaged in creative and meaningful ways, and that the teacher is able to properly assess the level of my child, and encourage my child to a new level. Teacher evaluations give me assurance that my child’s unique learning needs are being met. Teacher evaluations can be compared to someone observing a teacher at work through a glass window. Although it may only be a snapshot of a teacher’s capabilities and performance, it still helps to reassure, me as a parent, that the education system exercises some form of accountability in the educational development of my child. IT Specialist Accountant Instructor Pilot Youth Director Dentist Government Officer Class Time June 2014 11