The debate on Education

 When the debate is about education, we have got to be all the more solemn and sincere.

Debates we must engage in. The more seriously we do, the better. Without serious debates, there scarcely is anything concrete we can hope for. When the debate is about education, we have got to be all the more solemn and sincere.

Trivialising education just because one can say anything about a subject anywhere, as noble as sharing is, is reprehensible. We have had enough.

An unstable vision is the worst thing we should aspire for, particularly when we are talking about the nation’s education system.

We will continue to question why 200 schools are better than 500 schools and how boarding schools are better than day schools. The press release issued soon after the news that the number of schools would be reduced to 200 did not help. In fact, we are left to wonder how such miscommunication could even have happened.

Blaming the press for what it did, and informing the nation as the information roll on from the sources, is not right. It is a pity. Our schools face many problems today that can be addressed by simply rationalising the power of needs and wants. Perhaps we understood rationalisation quite differently. That is why we often hear about disturbing nonchalance when hoards of our seasoned teachers are leaving the system.

If the aim is to reduce the workload of our teachers, reducing the number of schools is not the way. And now we hear that the closure of any school will be left to the communities and the parents to decide. What does it mean?

Who got it wrong, the ministry, the public, or the government? Miscommunication can be costly.

The time has not come for Bhutan yet to reduce the number of schools. If we bring down the number of schools, how are we working with the number of teachers who leave the system and those who are getting into it? And, more importantly, are we giving our children the education that will help them stand on their own feet? There are numerous more questions. Education debate must not lose focus. No one can play with it.