A performance management programme for the Drama in Education Centre

Abstract

"Accountability is an essential element of democracy... Thus, in the context of schooling, teachers along with all others responsible for educational planning and provision, must expect to be required to give an account of their attempts to meet their responsibilities, and some procedures of evaluation of appraisal must be instituted to assess the degree of their success or failure. Furthermore, without some kind of evaluation, it is difficult to see what basis might exist for any real development either of the curriculum or of the teachers themselves. For a pre-requisite of improvement must be some evaluation of previous performances". Kelly (1987:215) Recently in Malta, the idea that every teacher should be accountable for the work one does in class has gained popularity. Moreover, the need to start a programme in school, to be able to appraise each and every teacher started to be felt. The main idea was not to punish or reward teachers, but to help teachers improve on the good service that they already rendered. The Performance Management Programme is the programme currently being used in all state schools both at Primary and Secondary level. This study focuses of the Drama peripatetic service which to date, along with other peripatetic services is not undergoing this particular Performance Management Programme. The author thus interviewed all the teachers within the Drama in Education Centre (Drama Unit), in order to create a format for a Performance Management Programme to be used in the service rendered by the Drama in Education Centre (Drama Unit). From the interviews carried out, it was agreed that a Performance Management Programme should be commenced, although with slight differences from the programme currently used for regular teachers in the classrooms.