Starting this month, the education ministry will recruit 316 teachers to address teacher shortage in the country. This is the highest number of recruitment so far.
Recruiting contract teachers is one of the strategies, the ministry has taken after many teachers left for studies.
Out of 316 teachers who left from February till July this year, 95 are on study leave, 72 on Extra Ordinary Leave (EOL) and 85 resigned . The rest either got transferred to different agencies, on deputation, selected in different positions and some superannuated or died.
The ministry’s Chief Human Resource Officer attributed the high number of shortage this year to the introduction of in-country master courses.
“We cannot expect quality education from the general graduates like our trained teachers,” said the ministry’s Chief HRO, Kinley Gyeltshen. “But after the selection of 316 teachers, we are going to provide a rigorous ten days of orientation to the selected graduates in transformative pedagogy as well as in the English and Dzongkha for effective communications.
“We will ensure that the quality of education is ensured,” he added.
Recognizing the shortage and its implication on the quality of education, the Royal Civil Service Commission also accorded special consideration for recruitment of national contract teachers.
Meanwhile, the ministry has other strategies to address the challenge.
“In the 12th Five Year Plan, we plan to consolidate all small schools with less than 100 children.
“As of now we have about more than 150 schools with less than 100 children.
“So we want to bring all those children to central schools. So with that the shortage of teachers will be curbed,” said the Chief HRO.
Excluding principals, vice principals, those on EOL, study leave and maternity leave, today there are 7656 teachers in 479 schools.
