Teachers hope that they are evaluated fairly in their Individual Work Plan (IWP) after it is reformed

Individual Work Plan (IWP) is used to outline an individual employee’s goals, responsibilities, and performance expectations for a specific period, typically a year, introduced by the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) in 2017.

Its aim is to focus on individual’s efforts and their contributions, upon which the civil servants can improve for the betterment. It is in accordance to the four ratings: “Outstanding”, “Very Good”, “Good” and “Need Improvement”, which is set to not let the employees to divert their mind and contribute effectively.

The employees who have to meet these criteria set have claimed that despite the need to do other works, they have to gather information and evidence to prove that they deserve a good rating, especially the ones who are rated as “Need Improvement”.

One such incident is shared by a teacher in the eastern, Dhendup. According to him, IWP entails extra work for a teacher, as he thinks that a teacher is supposed to be engaged with his students and clarify their doubts, but he says, “It is tiresome, and sometimes, I even lose my main focus on teaching.”

Another teacher shared his experience of being evaluated, wherein he said, “To be very honest, I am not satisfied with how they have rated me because as per the given responsibilities, I carry on with all the activities, write report, and compile documents, I deserve to be rated more than ‘Good’.”

He also believes that the worst rating is obviously “Need Improvement”, where one is said be under observation and provide guidance for another one year. However, he says this was only mentioned verbally, but not implemented, even though every year there is at least one civil servant who falls under the “Need Improvement” category in the school.

According to RCSC, to get a good rating, there are three sections, whereby in Section A, the employee should first fill up a form titled, “Employee Details” followed by Section B: “Performance Assessment” (PA), Section C: “Competency Behavior” (CB) and then the total evaluation score from the PA and CB, which is the final score will be compiled.

Furthermore, to get a good score, a civil servant should know how to “Think ahead to anticipate issues, identify opportunities and appreciate implications.” And the lowest score where the employee is rated as “Need Improvement” is when the employee, “…is hasty in formatting opinions and judgement taking action before assessing implications and focuses on day-to-day problems at the expense of longer-term planning.”

Karzang Wangpo thinks IWP is a good moderation, however, he feels that while competing to be categorized as an exemplary employee, he is demotivated when his timely efforts are not noticed by the supervisors.

He is hopeful that the directive given by the Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, to the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, to look into IWP of teachers by 1 March. He said, “I hope we are evaluated according to our potential and a rating that best suites our effort.”

Two civil servants shared their positive review upon this evaluation, where one of them considers that IWP for teachers should be regularly reviewed to access their proficiency and effectiveness in fulfilling their roles and responsibilities, ultimately ensuring that students receive a high-quality, holistic education.

The other notes that this process helps to maintain coherence within the school system, and holds teachers accountable for their performance and progress towards their objectives and goals.

The challenge is to have a rating system that can evaluate teachers but also captures their many activities and contributions to the school.

On the other hand, the RCSC is not keen to entirely do away with the IWP but is open to improve on it.

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