In order to explain to the municipalities the specifics of how to organise and hold teacher appraisals in 2023/2024, U-LEAD organised a special event and invited its expert, an official of an education management body, Serhii Diatlenko, to work with the municipalities.
More than 300 representatives of municipalities from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv and Cherkasy Oblasts joined the event. The expert provided clarification on the conditions and procedure for assigning qualification categories, teacher ranks and the organisation of the work of appraisal commissions.
“Despite difficult conditions and the ongoing war, municipalities continue to provide educational services. Teacher appraisal is an important element of this process, necessary to verify the level of educational services. For its part, U-LEAD, given its commitment to supporting the country’s municipalities, organises events that give clarifications on passing the appraisal in accordance with the new terms,” said Maksym Tkach, Head of the Regional Office of the U-LEAD with Europe in the Donetsk Oblast.
During his speech, Serhii Diatlenko emphasised the mandatory nature of the appraisals for all those who hold the positions as educators as well as academic and research staff. They are mandatory according to the List of such positions, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Minters of Ukraine No. 963 dated 14 June 2000. According to him, everybody must undergo the appraisal, regardless of the amount of teaching hours, the number of educational subjects and the form of the employment contract.https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/963-2000-пhttps://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/963-2000-п
Next, the expert provided an explanation regarding the appraisal of both currently employed teachers and newly appointed ones. He told about the scheduled appraisal as well as extraordinary appraisals initiated by either the employee or the manager.
A scheduled appraisal must be conducted at least once every five years. It can be postponed for no more than a year due to circumstances beyond the employee’s control that prevent the teacher from undergoing the appraisal. In this case, the teacher retains the previously assigned qualification category (teacher rank) until they pass the appraisal.
Extraordinary appraisals can be initiated by the employee and/or under one of the following conditions: the employee is awarded as a winner or participates in the final stages of all-Ukrainian and international professional competitions; the employee is awarded an academic and research/educational and creative/scientific degree or passes certification. The stipulation is that such an employee has increased their qualification level in the last five years before the appraisal and has the appropriate teaching experience to apply for a higher category.
Extraordinary appraisal initiated by the manager is conducted in the case of a decrease in the teaching quality. It cannot be conducted earlier than three years after the previous appraisal.
“The results of the appraisal of teaching staff apply to the entire teaching load that the teacher had, provided that the teacher undergoes training in any subjects they teach outside their specialty, as well as to for any additional loading in the inter-appraisal period, without the requirement to undergo training”, said Serhii Diatlenko.
According to him, teachers holding several positions should be appraised for each of them. The appraisal schedule for different positions may coincide or differ.
Furthermore, as was noted by the expert, in order to be assigned a qualification category, a teacher must meet the professional standard, and the conditions for the assignment specified by the Regulations must be met.