With School Leaving Certificate results that dropped to eight-year low this year drawing widespread criticism from different quarters, the Ministry of Education (MoE) on Wednesday issued a 23-point directive to its subordinate offices to improve the SLC success rate in the years ahead.

The directive has it that all teachers should set a benchmark and develop a work plan accordingly, which will be monitored by school inspectors and resource persons.

From this year onwards performance of tenth graders will be evaluated on a quarterly basis by resource centres. “Reward and punish the teachers based on the achievements of students,” the MoE fiat to District Education Offices (DEOs) read.

The MoE has also directed to formulate codes of conduct for teachers and students and asked school inspectors and resource persons to strictly implement it. All DEOs must maintain profiles of the schools with poor results and develop a mechanism to find out the reasons for poor academic performance and solutions, according to the directive. The new provision has tasked DEOs to set up hotlines to receive complaints against teachers and address grievances.

Directing schools not to announce additional holidays apart from those days enlisted in the Education Regulations, the MoE has asked every school to develop a yearly calendar and follow it strictly.

The new rule bans teachers from participating in workshops and seminars conducted by different organisations without permission from the respective DEOs. The MoE has also directed its regional offices to analyse performance of Grade 10 students on a quarterly basis and give needed support to the districts with poor performance. It has directed all resource centres to conduct monthly meetings in all schools and evaluate progress reports every month.

source: the kathmandu post,20 June 2013