The BBS reported today that the finance ministry has issued an office order announcing that the pay revision for MPs will be effective from 1st January 2009 and not 1st April 2008 as notified earlier.
Good.
“My duty is to worry every single day about our people and country. And to voice these worries frankly so that we do not get carried away, get caught unawares, or become complacent” commanded His Majesty the King to the teacher graduates during their convocation on 17th February (read full text). His Majesty then articulated his concerns about our education system with the clarity, earnestness and sense of urgency that comes from “worrying every single day”.
Our education system has recently come under increasing fire. Yet seemingly little is being done. So His Majesty’s counsel is timely. No doubt, the government will take it seriously. What follows are experts from His Majesty’s address …
Does our education system reflect our changing opportunities and challenges? Contemplate this question.
Our hopes and aspirations as a nation must be reflected in what is taught to our future generations in the classroom.
We must ensure that … young little hands grow to become strong and worthy of carrying our nation to greater heights.
It is the duty of parents, policy makers and the government to put the right tools in their hands – the right books, the right curriculum, the right direction.
We must first ask ourselves … what is the Vision for Bhutan? Then we must build an education system that nurtures people with the right skills, knowledge and training to fulfill this Vision. The sooner we realize this, the better.
Our nation’s vision can only be fulfilled if the scope of our dreams and aspirations are matched by the reality of our commitment to nurturing our future citizens.
If our Vision for the nation is not contained in the pages of the books that our young children hold, in the words of our teachers … and in the education policies of our governments, then let it be said – we have no Vision.
While we pile dream upon dream like floors on a skyscraper, the foundation needs to be strengthened.
Mathematics is one of our main weaknesses. We have similar weaknesses in Science and amazingly, even English.
A nation’s future will mirror the quality of her youth – a nation cannot fool herself into thinking of a bright future when she has not invested wisely in her children.
It is not enough to provide free education – we must provide education of such quality that it will guarantee a distinguished place for our youth anywhere in the world.
Do not … let the light of education ever go out.
Team teaching – a new pedagogic method practiced in urban schools to address classroom shortages and high enrolment; two teachers teach one class; while one teaches, the other monitors the class and helps students; the two teachers share homework correction duties. This week, Kuensel wrote about “team teaching” being introduced in Thimphu schools.
Multigrade teaching – a pedagogic method practiced in community schools to address teacher shortages; one teacher teaches several classes together, in the same classroom; that teacher teaches all the subjects for all the classes; and that teacher does all the homework correction, for all the students. Last week, Kuensel wrote that community primary school teachers are required to do “multigrade teaching”.
The two Kuensel articles, published one after the other, in two consecutive issues, are disturbing. Together, the articles indicate that our rural schools face a shortage of teachers, while our urban schools could be having excess teachers.
Yesterday, BBS reported exactly that.
According to the finance minister’s Pay Revision Notification of 13th February, “The Government has approved a major change in the pension scheme…” The “major change” involves increasing pension benefits to 40% of the final basic salary and raising contributions to 22% of the basic salary (11% each by the member and employer).
Increasing pension benefits will, as I argued in a previous entry, affect the sustainability of our pension scheme. Some of this pressure will no doubt be relieved by raising the contribution levels.
So what overall impact will the government’s decision will have on the pension scheme’s sustainability? We don’t know yet.
What we do know, however, is that the government is dictating how our pension scheme will be run. And that is not good. Careless governments could easily misuse the pension fund to gain political mileage.
True, major reform is needed to make our pension scheme more sustainable and robust. But reform should come from the NPPF; it should not be imposed by the government.
Our finance minister issued two notices on 13th February.
The first notice announced that “Upon approval of the Parliament, the Ministry of Finance is pleased to announce the revision of pay and allowances of the public servants with effect from 1st January 2009…”
Good. This is consistent with the Parliament’s resolution and the government’s Pay Revision Proposal which states that “In order to reduce the magnitude of the costs, the Government has decided to implement the pay revision from January 2009” (see Pay Revision).
The second notice, addressed to the Hon’ble Speaker and Hon’ble Chairman of the NA and NC respectively, states that “…the pay raise and revised benefits of the MPs shall be effective from 1st April 2008…”
Not good. This is not consistent with the Parliament’s resolution, which was that the pay revision would be effective from January 2009. Parliament did not discuss or decide to apply the pay raise for MPs retroactively.
I’m going to the wedding too, remarked my friend, can you tell me where it is?
I told him that the happy event was taking place opposite the RSPN’s old office, below the new Norling building in lower Changangkha.
My friend’s blank look promoted me to continue: at the Chubachu roundabout take the road to Motithang; drive by the DHL office towards the RICB colony, but don’t go all the way to the colony; take the road that goes to the new road leading to the YDF complex; before you reach the new road, you’ll see a lot of vehicles; the wedding is somewhere around there…
Giving directions in Thimphu can be interesting. Landmarks, such as the clock tower, taxi parking, milk booth, pani tanki, swimming pool, main traffic and Memorial Chorten are used together with the locations of businesses, institutions and well known residences to guide people to specific places.
It’s surprising that we still don’t have proper addresses in Thimphu. A street name and a house number are all that a person really needs to find any place in this small city of ours. But for some odd reason, we haven’t been able to name our roads and number our houses. Actually our roads have names, but most of us don’t know them – without house numbers there’s no need to use them.
So it’s not easy finding your way around Thimphu, especially if you’re visiting. And, if you are a resident, you can’t receive mail unless you have a post office box or you use your office address. But DHL won’t deliver to your post office box, and international application forms won’t accept your papers without a proper address.
The Centre for Bhutan Studies, by the way, has an interesting address – it’s P.O Box 1111, Thimphu. But to visit CBS: go to Langjophakha; drive towards Dechhenchholing; take the road towards the Indian Embassy; take a left about 200m before the bridge and oppostite the double-storied traditional Bhutanese house.
Street names and house numbers … can it be that difficult?
The double-lane road below Norzin Lam has recently attracted a lot of attention. Dorji Wangchuk, in his blog, complained that he was clueless about the purpose of the “middle road”. And Kuensel questioned government officials why the road was built in the first place.
The double-lane road was built to take away Norzin Lam’s vehicular traffic, so that it could be converted to a completely pedestrian path. That, according to the Thimphu Structural Plan developed by Professor Christopher Beninger, was the idea. But that is not happening.
Norzin Lam continues to be used by vehicles traveling towards Chubachu. Vehicles returning from Chubachu use the lower lane of the double-lane road, leaving the “middle road” empty.
Our officials claim that Norzin Lam cannot be converted to a pedestrian lane because they do not have “budget and resources”. That is nonsense. If Norzin Lam is closed to vehicular traffic, it will automatically become a completely pedestrian lane. And without investing much money, a lot of what was envisioned for a pedestrian Norzin Lam can be realized.
It’s not about budget and resources.
So what is it about? I see two possibilities. One, that the government does not have the political will to close Norzin Lam to vehicles. And two, that the whole idea of converting Norzin Lam to a pedestrian lane was wrong.
Last week, Bhutan Times reported that a model town will be built in Denchi, Pema Gatshel (A new town like no other; Bhutan Times; 11 February – I couldn’t find the article on BT’s unfriendly website, so please bear with the numerous quotations).
The article quoted our prime minister as announcing that Denchi “… will be a dream town structurally planned and aesthetically beautiful with all aspects of urbanity…” And that it “… will have facilities not incorporated in other towns like a town hall, a park, a promenade, a unique modern dzong and banking and postal services.”
Very good.
But our prime minister also announced that Professor Chistopher Beninger will “… develop the concept and come up with a conceptual plan”. He clarified that “…the contract has not been awarded to him yet, but an arrangement will be worked out if the government likes what the professor offers.”
Not good.
The government should also invite Bhutanese architects to develop and propose concepts for the new township. In fact, the government should encourage and support national architects to develop the conceptual plans. And, at the very least, our architects should be given the opportunity to compete for the lucrative government contract.
As it turns out, the government may be giving special privileges to Professor Beninger instead – Bhutan Observer features him already discussing the plan with the prime minister.
Our own architects have been sidelined. Some of them are truly capable. And all of them can articulate the history, culture and spirit of this country far more eloquently than most foreigners. But only if they are given the chance.
In the past, we ignored our traditional architects and carpenters. And look at where that has landed us. Our towns show complete disregard for Bhutanese traditions and culture. Instead, we live in concrete blocks pretending to be traditional Bhutanese houses simply because we coat them with fake Bhutanese paint.
Let’s learn from our mistakes. Let’s use our own architects. Let’s use traditional carpenters. Otherwise we risk spreading the shame that is Thimphu to our beautiful countryside. And that’s no way to build a “model town”.
(Photo from Bhutan Observer)
Okay, I’m impatient. I wish we’d make better and quicker use of ICT. I wish we’d use the decades of hard work and zillions of dollars that others have invested to leapfrog to the frontiers of ICT.
But I should also wish that we learn from their mistakes.
A close friend of mine tells me that filing taxes and declaring assets online is dangerous stuff. She warns me that financial information, such as bank accounts and personal identification, that is sent online, especially as email attachments, can easily be intercepted and misused. And that “identity theft” and stealing other people’s money online is already a rampant crime all over the world.
But she also tells me that it is possible to design secure systems. And that ACC, MOF and other online service providers can and should provide complete security that goes beyond simple passwords.
We know about the opportunities of online finance. Let’s learn about the dangers as well – Wikipedia has some information on identify theft.
I’ve filed my PIT returns electronically. It’s quite easy: go to the MOF website; download the electronic form, an excel file; complete the form; and submit it as an email attachment. The only cumbersome part is sending the supporting documents – TDS certificates, proof of education expenses, donation receipts and the like must be scanned and sent as email attachments.
The entire process should not take more than two hours. If you have trouble, telephone them. The officials are polite, patient and helpful.
I learned that, so far, only 600 of the 5500 PIT returns were filed electronically. That’s barely 11% of the total returns filed. As the PIT deadline approaches, I expect and encourage more tax payers to file their PITs electronically.
I’ve also submitted my asset declarations online. This new feature of the ACC came as a pleasant surprise. I’d gone to their website to print the asset declaration forms and accidently stumbled on their online service. Declaring assets is now very simple. Just follow the online instructions and you should be done in less than an hour.
The ACC system, however, is new and they are still piloting it. So expect small glitches. But nothing that can’t be handled with a quick call to Chimme Wangmo who manages the system – she’s knowledgeable, courteous and very helpful.
So far about 40 people have submitted their asset declarations to ACC. Of them only 8 were filed online. Again, I’m sure more people will use this very convenient service as the deadline to submit asset declaration approaches.
One important point about submitting asset declarations: Public servants who fall under Schedule I are required to submit their asset declarations to ACC. All others submit them to their respective organizations. Read page 9 of the Asset Declaration Rules to see which public servants are under Schedule I.
Tshering Tobgay is a Member of Parliament representing Sombaykha Constitutency in Haa. He is the Leader of the Opposition Party in the National Assembly of Bhutan.
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