Monday, May 17, 2010

The Good And Bad ...

...of giving cash rewards or performance pay to teachers.

Here in Malaysia, the government will be giving annual cash incentives of between RM900 and RM7,500 to principals,headmasters and teachers of high performance schools from next year.

The incentives are for those pushing their schools to achieve the composite score target of 92 per cent for secondary schools and 82 per cent for primary schools.

The score is calculated based on a school’s grade point average and the national education quality standard.Principals and headmasters who achieve the target will get RM7,500.

DPM Muhyiddin Yassin who is also Education Minister said teachers of schools ranked in the top five per cent of the performance assessment would get RM1,800 while the other 95 per cent would get RM900.

Read more HERE.

In the US, certain quarters are saying that this is not such a good idea. An economist with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said:

"Policymakers should probably think twice before they transfer to education the pay system that has helped generate the global financial crisis."

In Teachers, Performance Pay, and Accountability: What Education Should Learn from Other Sectors, researchers Scott J. Adams, John S. Heywood and Richard Rothstein examine the evidence that underlies these assumptions, concluding that the use of merit pay systems has negative consequences that often block the larger goal of improving the quality of services.

I'm quoting the Huffington Post.

"Daniel Pink, author of the best selling book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, has an great presentation on YouTube discussing what motivates skilled labor people to do excellent work and surprisingly, it isn't money.

The three reasons that people are motivated to do excellent work according to Pink are

  • they are aligned with the purpose of the job
  • they are given some autonomy on the job
  • they are supported in gaining mastery of the job


Pink says, that "When the profit motive become unmoored from the purpose motive bad things happen -- like poor quality, shoddy work." We don't want teachers who are focused primarily on money and not on our kids.

Studies show that teachers are already purpose driven and while merit pay may temporarily improve performance over all it has no positive impact. Teachers need to be given more respect, more autonomy, better overall pay, supplies, and more classroom support to master their teaching skills. Merit pay doesn't work for the workplace and is a terrible idea for schools."

Click HERE on "New Research Shows Merit Pay For Teachers A poor Idea".

This subject is, of course, debatable. And this is based on the situation and conditions in the US. Having said that, the premise is the same. Teachers and students strive for the same things, no matter where we are.




7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Due respect but our government has turn our Teacher From An Educator To MONEY HOPER...

Want us to teach?? Show us THE MONEY..

It is very sad..of all civil servant TEACHER is the MOST PAID,with lots of allowances plus exampted from TAX!!!

And they ask for more.. but where is STANDARD of STUDENTS ABILITY AND INTELLIGENT??

I asked all teachers dont praise yourself and be PROUD when their STUDENT achieve a EXCELLENT RESULT,and for the government to jump with enjoyment when the SCHOOL achieve a GOOG result..

why?? why?? because 80% of the student being sent FOR TUITION by their PARENT.. so where is the TEACHER' QUALITY??

We parent spending our money for our children tuition because the QUALITY in SCHOOL is very low..especially in rural school..

why? why? why? because nowadays TEACHERS are more in MAKING MONEY outside aka to be a TUITION TEACHER rather than a SCHOOL TEACHER.

dont jump of this comment because IT IS A REALITY..

p/s: To all my teachers YOU ALL ARE THE TRUE EDUCATOR..

"HAPPY TEACHER's DAY"

NJ said...

Salam Sejahtera Puan,

"When the profit motive become unmoored from the purpose motive bad things happen -- like poor quality, shoddy work."

When our God is no longer our god, but money is.

"SATU BANGSA, SATU NEGARA, SATU BAHASA"

Budak Parit said...

Early this year I was in PIBG meeting for one of the primary school in Subang Jaya. In this school, they introduce a system called as streaming school, where top students will be placed in the top class. This school hope to produce more 5 A's scorer in the PMR exam.

I asked the headmistress about why she is doing it and what happen to those not so brainy student? No answer? My daughter is doing well in this school and not to worry so much about her. I just pity those students who was not selected in these elite classes. I guess no special attention will be given to them.

For this this is totally not fair and discrimination of the highest order! Not to mention totally off tangent with the spirit of educating our young ones.

School not just about how many A's and how many 5 As. This is about educating our young ones about right and wrong, nurturing their talents and creativity. So that when they grow up they will not morally bankrupt and able to survive using the creativity that they have and excel with the talent given to them.

Wake UP! said...

Students nowadays are more score oriented. They do not study because they love knowledge but because their parents wants them to study hard and get good results.

Teachers should ensconce the love for knowledge in their students.

Umno must change

Anonymous said...

What do you think of Dr Raffick's post on Rights2write

#
My research on the internet, shows the following;



1.
From the EC press release on voters turnout (BERNAMA)
1. Total No. of Registered Voters : 54,695 (including 2,537 postal voters)
2. Number of voters who cast ballots : 32,742
3.
Voter turnout : 59.86 per cent


2.
From the EC official results announcement (BERNAMA)
1. Robert Lau Hui Yew (BN) – 18,447 votes
2. Narawi Haron (INDEPENDENT) – 232 votes
3. Wong Ho Leng (DAP) – 18,845 votes
4.
Votes cast : 37,919


3.
The difference between announce turnout and actual count is 5177 votes (ballot paper)
(or about 2x postal ballot )



#
From the above we could see that 5177 additional ballot paper has come in into the final tally. A few hundred more ballot papers, PR would have lost Sibu as how they have lost Batang Ai. These is something that EC need to explain. Can it be that they made a mistake at the original announcement? It sounds so unlikely. It is time a special select committee at Parliament look at this matter seriously. They need to scrutinize each individual ballot papers and voters listing tally in detail. Credibility of Malaysian Voting system is at stake here.

Wake UP! said...

Parents and teachers should encourage their children and students to pursue their dreams.

The children's dream could be different from the parents so don't force them to do what you like instead of what they like.

Don't be insane

Donplaypuks® said...

It's clear that Najib, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, thinks that money is all the Rakyat want and can be bribed into submission the way a certain political group has.

Integrity, self-respect, recognition all count in big ways as well.

In particular, this constant "bribe' by way of pay rise and cash rewards without tying them to productivity and performance will lead the nation to bankruptcy!!

dpp
we are all of 1 race, the Human Race