Principals of excellent schools to get incentives, rewards: Muhyiddin

PUTRAJAYA: Special incentives such as one or two months’ salaries are being considered in appreciation of the contribution of principals and headmasters in excellent performing schools.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said teachers would also enjoy these incentives as the success of a school was not just dependent on the principal or headmaster but was a joint effort.
“A committee at the ministry level is looking into this and more detailed information will be announced before the end of the year,” he told reporters after presenting prizes to winners of the RHB-The Star Mighty Minds Challenge national finals.
Muhyiddin who is also the Education Minister, said between three to four percent of principals and headmasters would qualify for this next year.
He said the deal would not be based solely on examination results or students’ achievements but on the school leadership.
“We are finalising the other criteria and will announce these soon,” he said.
When tabling the budget last Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the Government would ensure that schools were managed and administered professionally by principals and head teachers as well as their management teams.
For excellent performing schools, he said the Government would introduce the New Deal or Bai’ah as an appreciation of the contribution and performance of principals and head teachers.
Najib who is also the Finance Minister, said the Government would determine the performance targets that must be achieved, as agreed by principals and head teachers.
If targets were achieved, he said rewards in the form of monetary and non-monetary incentives as well as autonomy in school administration would be accorded.
However, he said necessary action would be taken against those who failed to meet the targets for two consecutive years.
On the national scholarships for the 30 creme de la creme students, Muhyiddin said this would start next year.
“It will be based on this year’s Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination results and other considerations,” he said.
He said the scholarships fall under the Public Services Department, adding that a committee would be set up to make the assessment.
The scholarships were announced as part of the budget last Friday as Najib said the Government intended to reward students who excel in their studies.
These scholarship recipients would further their studies in world-renowned universities.
On the Mighty Minds competition, Muhyiddin said it was a very good programme and congratulated both RHB and The Star.
“I have been told it’s going to be an annual event and I hope it can be expanded to many more schools,” he said.
Muhyiddin said the students who participated in the competition used skills, creativity and innovation in their work.
“I hope people can see how intelligent our students are,” he said.

tunku : this is a very good move by the ministry. hope by these incentives the principals/headmasters and teachers will give their best to educate our children.we hope these incentives will cover every single schools and not for certain schools only.the education ministry should implement KPI for each school and if the school did not progress ( given a time frame) the principal/headmaster will be transferred to other school. the headmaster/principal/teacher should not cover up any crime/wrongdoing in their school just to get the incentives.incentives should be given also to those schools that caught the wrongdoings of it's students and staffs.we have heard lots of news that the schools hide it's students or teachers wrongdoing just for the sake of it's good name.we can tackle this issue by giving them incentives for exposing it.