The Education Ministry, in partnership with Ericsson India Pvt. Limited, and Bhutan Telecom Limited, launched iSchool project in Thimphu, today.
The project is based on the global initiative, “Connect to Learn”. It will allow a few teachers to reach hundreds of students through video conferencing technology.
Ericsson has deployed video conference technology to all the participating schools. Bhutan Telecom provided high speed broadband connectivity to connect these schools.
There six participating schools under this pilot project.
The Prime Minister, Tshering Tobgay, launched the project.
Lyonchhen said the idea of the iClass is to share the best of teachings with other schools. “Let’s suppose the quality of English is deteriorating, the idea is identifying the best English teacher and shares them with other schools.”
The Prime Minister said it is not about replacing teachers.
The other idea, he said, is forcing technology to work. “The fiber optics is in 205 gewogs, who are going to use them? If we don’t use them it is as good as no technology.”
Lyonchhen also added that while the six participating schools will have live interactive sessions through video conferencing, the other schools can get access to lessons online.
The Ministry of Education says that upon the successful implementation of the project, they are planning to extend the initiative to remote schools across the country.
The Director of Department of School Education, Karma Yeshey, said it will benefit the remote schools where they have not been able to send experienced teachers.
He added while they are planning of expanding the initiative, they are also aware of the challenges.
“The first challenge will be technology. How will we get the connectivity? Even though we have optic fiber in almost all the gewogs, the challenge for us would be how to take the connectivity from the gewogs to the schools.”
The other challenge, he said, would be sustainability. “But I think…we should be able to overcome all this.”
A memorandum of understanding for the implementation of iSchool project was signed between Bhutan Telecom Ltd, Ericsson India Pvt Ltd and the Education Ministry.
