Engineering students to rate their teachers from 2019-20

Has the teacher covered the entire syllabus as prescribed by the university? How effective was the content and how effective was the teacher in communicating it? What about the pace at which it was being taught?

These are among the parameters on which students of nearly 10,400 engineering colleges will rate their teachers from the academic year 2019-20, according to a top official.

The All India Council for Technical Education, which regulates engineering colleges and polytechnics across India, has chalked out a detailed mechanism to assess the performance of a teacher. Apart from student feedback, other factors to be used to grade a teacher are departmental activities, institute activities, annual confidential report as well as contribution to society.

“We have come up with a new system which focuses on how much work of the teacher is of relevance to the students as well as the society. Earlier, there was a lot of focus on the number of publications etc. However, there is now a concerted effort to make the evaluation of teachers in technical institutions more broadbased,” said AICTE vice-chairman MP Poonia.

Teaching and student feedback have been allotted 25 marks while teachers can get a maximum of 20 points for departmental activity, 10 each for institute activity, ACR and contribution to society. Overall, teachers will be rated on a 100-point scale.

Two notifications have already been issued by AICTE in this regard, Poonia said. The norms related to student feedback will practically kick in from the academic session 2022-23 as teachers will be assessed on their performance based on a three year period, Poonia said.

Inder Mohan Kapahy, a former UGC member said: “Any 360-degree evaluation of an academic process is always welcome. There should be a comprehensive evaluation of the course content, exam and assessment patterns. The aim should be to encourage academic improvement.”