Accountability of Teachers: A brief note

Accountability of Teachers

Accountability is defined as “responsibility to someone or from some activity”. Teachers’ accountability refers to teachers’ responsibility for their students and the students’ learning. In other words accountability means holding everyone with responsibility to achieve high standard of performance. (Responsibility for students’ means, “responsibility towards developing students’’ ethics, social behaviour, personal behaviour, qualities and etc.)

Accountability of a social science teacher is specially demarcated as his/her attitude in teaching social science, responsibility in undertaking deviated teaching approaches to teach the subject, understanding the learner, considering gifted and slow learners, evaluating and anecdote the learner progress, make use technological and modern methods for transacting social science and etc.  A social science teacher is consistently being held responsible for performance of the students in the school subjects like history, geography, sociology and the other.  

Accountability of a teacher can be evaluated through observations and by student assessments (e.g., there is a world organization titled PISA – Program of International Student Assessment- to find the accountability of schools an teachers).  

Teachers are accountable for:

• Adequate preparation of contents to teach

• Continued professional growth

• Enhancement of professional knowledge, growth, skills and attitude

• Knowledge and concern for pupils

• Relation with students, co-teachers, colleagues, community, society

• Ethical conduct

The teachers responsible to keep accountability –

• To themselves

• To the teaching profession

• To co workers

• Pupils

• To the public

• To the parents

• To the school administrator or manager 

• To the government and funding agencies 

Accountability is the basic element to ensure professionalism. Teachers should take self-efforts for developing with qualities and that is basic features of accountability.