As part of the nationwide effort to keep students engaged in academics after schools across the country have been closed in the fight against coronavirus., the Education Ministry launched Bhutan E-Learning Program today.
The lessons will be broadcast from tomorrow morning.***
The Ministry shared that e-learning program is one of the means and ways of engaging students and not necessarily to cover the syllabus.
Pema Khandu, a teacher from Wangbama Central School is busy delivering lessons about the layers of the atmosphere. But something is missing in this whole set up; students. The lesson delivery is not happening in the classroom but at one of the studios at Bhutan Broadcasting Service Corporation. Similarly, other teachers have been engaged since last week recording lessons in the studios.
“This is the first time for me to actually dub the recording and teach facing cameras and many people, so it has 
been a unique experience for me and it was nerve-racking as well. But slowly I finished my first session and now I am getting used to it. Although we are doing it with the assistance of technology, it can never replace the teaching charisma and feeling that we get from the real classroom setting,” said Pema Khandu, a teacher of Wangbama Central School.
“Our sole purpose of going online is to have students engaged so that they are in touch with their books. On my experience, this was my first time coming up on BBS. I was quite nervous at the initial time but as I kept going on with my lesson, I felt comfortable and quite confident that in my upcoming lessons I would do much better,” added Pelden Nima, also a teacher in the same school.
“E-learning is a very positive initiative taken by the Ministry and it’s good for all the students across the country because as we know some schools and some students don’t have all the privileges. It’s a new experience and I have never done this before. In a way it’s good as we get exposure, we learn a lot of new things,” shared Susmika Tamang, a teacher of Motithang Higher Secondary School.
The online education has been scripted for classes PP to 12 by including only the prioritized topics. So far, the ministry has finished developing nearly seventy videos to be broadcast from tomorrow.
“Lessons have been developed for the primary level that is for classes PP to VI and for them we have focused on Dzongkha, English and Maths. And for classes seven and above, we have grouped them into different groups; seven and eight in one, nine and ten in a different group and 11 and 12 in one group. And for these groups, we have focused on preparing theme-based lessons,” said Karma Tshering, the Offg. Secretary for Education Ministry.
Meanwhile, the Ministry shared plans to reach those who are in rural areas and do not have access to television.
“As per His Majesty’s command, we are going to make use of the print media. We are going to print the video lessons into a booklet and distribute it to the students. For this, we need support from the respective districts and gewogs. If possible we are also looking into sending teachers and to support the students should the closure continue. In the meantime, we also have readied instructional guidelines based on which the students will be able to learn the lessons themselves,” he added.
Should the closure extend, the ministry has plans to continue engaging students through various platforms.
Sonam Pem
*** Schedule of the lessons on BBS 2:
The lesson will start from 09.00 am with 1. English Key Stage 1 (Class PP-III), followed by 2. Dzongkha Key Stage 2 (Class IV-VI), Geography Key Stage 3 (Class VII-VIII), English Key Stage 4 (Class IX-X), Economics Key Stage 4&5 (Class IX-XII), Physics Key Stage 4&5 (Class IX-XII), and Media StudiesKey Stage 5 (Class XI-XII). The lessons will end at 12 noon.
The same will be rebroadcast on BBS 1 from 12 noon in the same sequence.
