Dr Asangba Tzudir
With changing times and the evolution of new education system, the profession has become more demanding within the need to deliver quality education, besides work recording and auditing. As part of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) requirement, Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) is conducted in Colleges to assess the quality of higher education. Students are randomly selected for the survey, and their identities are kept confidential. The survey is primarily designed to help institutions improve the quality of education by employing a Likert scale, where students rate questions on a scale of 0 to 4, with 4 being the most positive response and 0 being the most negative.
However, the larger question is whether such surveys can really have an impact on quality education? It can really have an impact if ‘quality audit’ and ‘performance assessment’ of teachers are done based on the honest responses of the students. But, if the survey is tailored to suit the grading of the institution, the objective of building quality education will be defeated. Now, beyond the NAAC requirement, question still remains as to whether students should assess and grade their teachers, say, like through a SWOC analysis? While student evaluations can provide valuable feedback to assess the situational context of quality education delivery and overall status of educational institutions, there are also certain contentions.
On the one hand, with proper orientation on the professional ethics and trust, evaluation by students can actually provide teachers with constructive feedback in a way that it can help the teacher understand the needs of their students which in turn will help the teacher re-orient one’s method and style of teaching according to the needs of the students who come from diverse backgrounds having different intellectual levels and abilities. This will create a transforming impact on the teachers and will make them more responsive to the various needs of the students while also fostering a sense of ownership and responsibility among the students.
While adherence to professional ethics is imperative for teachers in delivering quality education, the trust factor plays a crucial role in building a healthy relationship between the teachers and the students which is integral to learning. Learning is a collective responsibility where both the teacher and the student should be ready to learn from one another. To this end, understanding the need and building a collective responsibility is of paramount importance. This calls for trust and having mutual respect for one another. Trust and mutual respect is also essential for the students to give honest feedback on their teachers and for the teachers to learn from it and also to take it constructively wherever required.
On the other hand, if assessment surveys are taken at ‘random’, then it may lead to biased and unfair assessments, and instead of bridging the gap and foster understanding, it will rather create a culture of fear and differences, and this can also lead to shifting priorities which will also affect professionalism. Often it will also undermine the authority, expertise and credibility of the teachers in the eyes of the students. Ultimately quality education will be sacrificed along with the culture of collective learning.
While regular student feedback is integral to delivering quality education, it is also important to first ‘bridge’ the teacher-student ‘gaps’ by orienting the students so that their feedback will be received by the teachers constructively, and that the integrity of education and learning is not compromised. It will then have a positive impact on the overall professional growth of any institution.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes guest editorials for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
