For effective implementation of Individual Work Plan (IWP) for teachers, one of the recommendations the education ministry would put up to the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) is to give the monitoring of the IWP to the ministry. 

Education minister Norbu Wangchuk at the National Assembly yesterday said that there are difficulties in the implementation of IWP for teachers and that following the Prime Minister’s directives, a review of IWP for teachers has been completed. “The ministry is in the process of making drafts of the review results.”

He said the ministry could manage the monitoring as it is in a better position to understand the situation of the teachers and that the ministry could rectify and improve the current system. 

Lyonpo was responding to Dophuchen Tading MP Tek Bahadur Subba and Panbang MP Dorji Wangdi’s question on the issues faced by teachers on implementation of IWP in schools. 

MP Tek Bahadur Subba said that IWP mandated by RCSC has led to discussions especially among educationists and that teachers have raised implementation difficulties of some of the IWP components. 

He said that of the six domains of the IWP, only two applies to teachers and inquired about the actions, further consultations with teachers and follow-ups carried out by the ministry. 

The IWP has six domains – leadership and management practices; green domain initiatives; curriculum practices; holistic assessment; broader learning, and community vitality.

MP Dorji Wangdi said that the promotion or pay increment of teachers or civil servants depend on the work outcome of the individual, which is worrying as there are difficulties with the assessment of the outcomes.  

According to IWP, individuals are rated outstanding, very good, good or need improvement. 

MP Dorji Wangdi said that there is no uniformity in the performance rating of teachers among the teacher resource centres, schools, and even schools in different dzongkhags and clusters. 

He said that as only two domains are related to teachers, teachers are overworked, as they have to do additional work besides teaching. “This could affect their promotion and pay increments.” As IWP was made for general civil servants, he said that it is not working for teachers. “How was such a policy introduced and is the government willing look into the matter and rectify it?”  

Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk in his answer highlighted four major flaws the review found with IWP for teachers. 

He said that teachers who are already over worked have to do additional work of documentation of performance evidences which hamper their work. 

He said that teachers’ main responsibility is to teach but to get higher scores, there are chances of teachers diverting their attention to other works. 

Lyonpo said that apart from there being chances of manipulation to get high scores, it also creates disharmony, lack of cooperation and instills doubt between teachers and principals and among teachers. 

He added that IWP is affecting the learning environment of the schools as its focus is on competition and who would get a higher score. “To give education to student, competition is not enough. Team work and collaboration is important.”

Karma Cheki