Add a Comment   Up to OJB's Blog List

Politics

Entry 13, on 2004-08-11 at 08:12:00 (Rating 2, Politics)

The government here (New Zealand) has announced a lot of new money to increase teachers' pay levels. Surprisingly, there was some comment that it's not what is really required. A system where teachers could be paid based on performance was pushed quite hard.

Theoretically it sounds like a good idea. Pay the good teachers more. Unfortunately, its really not that simple because there is no way to measure genuine performance.

In my experience performance is usually measured by bureaucrats using crude tools which reward workers who obey the rules and are good at paper work. Generally, these are the people who are *not* good at their job - so exactly the wrong behaviour is rewarded.

Despite its advantages I don't support performance pay in education and other critical services.

There are no comments for this entry.

You can leave comments about this entry using this form.

Enter your name (optional):
Enter your email address (optional):
Enter the number shown here:
Enter the comment:

To add a comment: enter a name and email (optional), type the number shown, enter a comment, click Add.
Note that you can leave the name blank if you want to remain anonymous.
Enter your email address to receive notifications of replies and updates to this entry.
The comment should appear immediately because the authorisation system is currently inactive.