College, university level APR likely to be introduced for school teachers in Bengal

Kolkata: West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education (WBCHSE) has now decided to introduce the 'academic performance indicator' (APR) for higher secondary-level teachers in the government-run schools in line with college and university teachers in the state, said sources.

“Right now the university and college teachers after going through an evaluation process can go through a twin- level of promotions in his or her academic career first from assistant professor to associate professor and subsequently from associate professor to professor. However, right now there is no such promotion scope for higher- secondary level teachers. So the council is mulling the idea of introducing a similar APR-based promotion system for them as well,” said a senior official from the state education department.

Meanwhile, the council has formed a six- member committee to evaluate and fix the criteria to be included in the proposed APR-based promotion system for higher secondary level teachers. The committee will submit their report to the state education department following which the latter will come to a final decision on this point.

State education department sources said that since there currently is no scope for APR- based promotion for higher-secondary level teachers, often teachers having higher degrees or Phd get opportunities in institutes of higher education and quit school- teaching jobs.

“The introduction of the APR- based promotion system in lines of college and university teachers is expected to arrest this tendency of quitting school- teaching jobs to a great extent. Higher secondary level education is extremely important in the entire chain of education since this level acts as the link between secondary and graduation levels. So highly qualified teachers with academic acumen are extremely important at this level and to retain them there should be some incentives,” said the state education department official said.