The Chief Executive of National Authority for Qualifications & Quality Assurance of Education & Training (QQA) Dr Jawaher Al Mudhahki stressed the important role played by experienced teachers and principals in promoting efforts towards education improvement in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
She pointed out that in a statement she made at the sidelines of an extensive training programme organized by QQA through 9-12 September, as part of a project to take advantage of retired Bahraini schoolteachers and principals’ experience.
Dr. Al Mudhahki explained that the project is a result of QQA's expansionary efforts at all levels, especially in reviewing the different educational institutions, as this initiative will allow recruiting retired teachers and principals on a part-time basis.
She pointed out that benefiting from such experiences would enrich the Authority’s experiences. Furthermore, the project embraces a selection of mechanisms which ensures identifying the best and most qualified experienced school teachers and principals and sets preparation standards for candidates in the field of quality assurance and performance evaluation, which ensure qualifying them to carry out optimal reviews.
“The recruitment process for public and private school reviews are based mainly on academic qualifications, actual teaching experience, and the results of a series of training courses on reviews and review mechanisms provided by QQA’s specialists and international experts,” she noted.
“The project will contribute to spread a culture of quality and quality practices across a large number of stakeholders and specialists, which will increase their participation in supporting improvement goals and aspirations both inside and outside QQA,” she added.
Dr. Khaled Al Baker, Senior Director of the Directorate of Government Schools Review, Said that the project will allow benefiting from the broad and varied educational experience of the retirees who fulfill the selection criteria, which will be supported by quality concepts and its optimal applications, especially with regard to evaluation and review skills. They are a national resource and an educational reference, which support improvement and development efforts, he added.
“The experienced, retired teachers and principals selected will be hired on a part-time basis to review the performance of public and private schools, each in the field of his/her experience, according to a hierarchal system which starts with the level of assistant reviewer, then independent reviewer, and ending with the level of associate reviewer,” he explained.
The extensive training programme aims to train participants on lesson observation and evaluation skills, assessing the different aspects of the review, writing its paragraphs and writing reports.
