Need For Performance Auditing of College Teachers

A bulk of graduates from our universities and colleges fall under the ‘arts and science group’. Not much research has been done to assess the quality of output from this student category. Their quality is rather dismal in terms of their learning and employability. This points a finger at the teachers who possibly have not been delivering their potential services to this vast majority of students, in spite of the huge pay package they receive. Teachers are accountable for student learning and in a broader sense to the society at large. There is an imperative need for performance auditing of college teachers to ensure their accountability and responsibility. The NAAC of the UGC has its shortcomings in performance evaluation of higher education institutes. Alternatives to performance evaluation strategies as undertaken in educationally advanced countries need to be adopted here, suitably modified to make it relevant in a region-specific context to our country.

The present study could be classified as exploratory research as it identifies major research gaps and gives pointers to formulating research problems in this area. The methodology is hence based on empirically observed phenomena and experience of the author in her long stint as a teacher in ‘govt. arts and science colleges’ in Kerala. The article draws its inputs and data from extensive literature review done on the subject.