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A teacher is  someone we look up to in school. They are first force to guide us on the right path of education after our parents and therefore, we hold them in high esteem. Every teacher gives their best to their class so that the child might excel at what they do. However, a chancellor who believes in reforming the school system thinks otherwise. And that is how she has managed to dismiss about two hundred and forty one teachers last Friday - on a single day!

The District of Columbia Public school has thrown out over 200 teachers and this is all because these teachers scored low on their evaluation tests. This is also because these teachers are accountable for how much a student scores in the standardised tests.

According to the chancellor, each and every child in the school needs a very good and effective teacher who can imbibe and impart the right knowledge. In fact the chancellor believes that this thought should be extended to every school in the country and in every neighbourhood as well. The chancellor who is committed to reform the school’s system is being very stringent and harsh.

On the whole about 302 employees were served with termination letters. Of these 206 six were given the boot due to poor performance and the rest 76 of them because of various other problems. Most of them who were terminated were either librarians, custodians, counsellors or other staff members who contributed to the student’s welfare in the school.

Rest of the staff were given a warning notice as they were considered to be effective yet that was very minimal. If they cannot improve in a year’s time they would be thrown out.

The funny aspect here is that before this counsellor came in, most of the teachers were highly rated but unfortunately their students scored really low. This means the chancellor is now rating the teachers based on their students’ achievements. This means that even if the teachers are good and well educated and informed and the students do not score high or just do not seem bright enough,  the teacher is not really effective and must go.

The union for teachers stated that they would contest the firing. They think the chancellor is being really unfair. She is being destructive, they stated. They said the evaluation had to be based on teacher support, learning and student development and not students’ scores.

The question is, can a school afford to throw out so many teachers at once? What about the students then? It is surely difficult to replace too many employees in one go. Instead they could have started with a training session that helped teachers who get acquainted with better and innovative methods of teaching. They could then help the students achieve better in school.

Also when the new teachers come in they will take time to be trained and also no one can guarantee right away if the new teachers are going to be as effective as the chancellor wants them to be or not. Therefore, it all comes back to the same thing.