Teachers should not reject performance contracts

By PETER C KAMURI

Performance-based management is all the rage today, especially in the corporate world and the public service. And this is because managers and workers understand the need for regular performance appraisals as a benchmark for assessing performance.

A performance contract is a written agreement between an employer and employee about the employee’s responsibilities and performance over agreed targets, that are pegged on a specified period of time under review.

That is why as early as 1990, the Government approved the introduction of performance-based management in public agencies.

However, this was to be actualised in 2003 when the Narc Government took power.

Performance contacting was then re-introduced as a management tool to ensure accountability for results and transparency in the management of public resources.

The Performance Contracts Steering Committee (PCSC) was also established with the mandate to spearhead the introduction and implementation of performance contracts in the public sector. Today, performance Based Contracting is anchored in the Prime Minister’s office.

Although public servants in the other sectors have been signing performance contracts for year’s, teachers and lecturers in public institutions have been among the very few public officers who have not been enlisted in this performance-based initiative.

But that might be about to change. Parliament wants teachers in all public schools to sign performance contracts that will largely determine promotion and salary increases. The teachers themselves have rejected this move, setting the stage for an epic battle.

Expecting too much?

However, before teachers are forced to sign performance contract, some basic elements need to be taken care of. For example, the employer should explain what they expect from the teachers once they sign these contracts.

The employer must also ensure that teachers are paid well so that they can justify their take-home package. Expecting too much from an underpaid teacher is simply asking for trouble.

Teachers must also be assured that junior ministry officials will not find new grounds to harass them needlessly when they fail to achieve their targets, especially if situation was outside the influence of the teacher. For example, teachers in arid areas where people are nomads cannot be accused of not teaching. Neither can a teacher in an impoverished rural school be judged by the same guidelines as one in a well-equipped school in Nairobi.

It’s also important that the government pump in money to equip them with requisite skills if the teachers to be able to realise their targets of being more effective and working better.

Performance appraisal should also be done in an environment where the teachers and their employer work together to determine measurements for evaluating each of the objectives. Every person must be actively involved and informed throughout the process.

And while teachers in public school have already rejected the notion that they will sign performance contracts, this work performance measurement and management tool is not bad.

Maybe no one has explained to teachers what it is all about.

Indeed, performance based management is a means of achieving better results from an organisation, by succinctly defining what should be done by giving clear directions on what should be done and the expectations.

Teachers are public servants who must be held accountable by the taxpayers who pay them. Moreover, the Ministry of Education has always gotten the largest share of the national budget. And taxpayers must be assured that the money is being used effectively.

There has to be a way of measuring the effectiveness of every public servant. And although a vast majority of teachers do their job diligently, a good number rides on the success of others.

Performance based management will help define the good performers, and highlight the under-performers.

Teachers must also remember that they will participate in setting their goals.  And if they fail to what do they had set to achieve, they can confidently suggests the reasons behind failure or revise their targets.

As teachers must realise that performance-based management will help them become better teachers and identify underlying opportunities in their profession.

 

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