Life in Ngangla

May 7, 2011Posted inEducation7 Comments
Four special guests are in Thimphu. They are Sonam Zangmo, Sangay Dorji, Thinely Wangmo and Sangay Wangchuk. The guests, all of whom are more or less 12 years old, are in Class VI in Kagtong Community Primary School in Ngangla gewog, Zhemgang. Kagtong is a village in lower Kheng. The village does not have electricity and is not connected by motor road. The nearest road-head to Kagtong is in Panbang, from where it takes a day to reach the remote village. 25 students from Kagtong CPS recently took part in a two-week photography course. During the training they recorded…

Monitoring drayangs

December 3, 2010Posted inLegislature
The public of Paro informed the National Assembly that drayangs and discotheques cause societal problems and upset the social harmony. So they suggested that strict licensing and operating rules should be developed in order to reduce the numbers of such entertainment centres. When discussing this matter yesterday, MPs, focusing mainly on drayangs, complained that these businesses lured young women from the villages, underpaid them and subject them to sexual harassment. So a couple of MPs pushed for an outright ban on drayangs. But, thankfully, the majority favoured developing clearer policies and regulations, and leaving licensing and enforcement to local…

Educating the centre

January 13, 2009Posted inEducation, Local Government
Gakiling has 13 villages. Some of the poorest parts of our country can be found in this cluster of villages that lie along the remote parts of upstream Amochu. Together, the 13 villages have just one school – Rangtse Community School, which opened two years ago after Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck visited the area. None of the villages is connected by car road. Most don’t even have mule tracks. So the school in Rangtse is not accessible to children living in other villages. And the children can’t live in Rangtse, because the school does not have boarding…

The end of school

November 28, 2008Posted inEducation
Galek, my daughter, age 9, class 4, finished her final exams yesterday.Today, her last day at school, is significant. It’s significant for me because she’s completed yet another year at school – a reminder that she’s growing up; that time flies.It’s significant for Galek too – today marks the completion of her first academic year since the introduction of democracy in Bhutan; the completion of one of the five academic years that we’ve given the DPT government to improve our education system.So I’ve been thinking: what has the DPT government done so far to improve the quality of education?…