The ongoing class eleven admission into private schools has left students, parents and private schools in a whirl of confusion. This is the result of the online registration the Education Ministry carried out prior to result declaration. The Private Schools Association of Bhutan feels that there’s a lack of clarity in the instructions and thus a gap of confusion and miscommunication.
The General Secretary of Private Schools Association of Bhutan said the association is receiving a lot of enquiries concerning the class eleven admission. He said there are a host of issues the Ministry needs to clear.
“The registration initiative that the Ministry of Education has actually undertaken created confusion among the students and parents who thought they were registering for enrolment and admission. However, the Ministry’s initiative of registration was not for enrolment or admission. I think they have undertaken a survey to find out how popular the private schools were among the students. They should have named it a survey study or something like that rather than calling it as registration. After having done the registration, most of the students think that they have enrolled themselves in schools. And therefore they are confident of their admissions,” said Tshering Dorji, the General Secretary for Private Schools Association of Bhutan.
While the Ministry’s instructions provide clarifications on class eleven admission in private schools, there still is no clarity for those who want to avail admissions to study in a boarding facility.
“It is clear for those who are availing admission to study as day scholars, they can straight away either walk into the respective school or even register themselves through online and then their admission is done. But there are different types of private schools, there are private schools who offer only boarding facilities. So in such a case, the students will enrol themselves as boarding students. But the Ministry has reserved the right to place the boarding students. And we were instructed that only those who are economically needy and destitute are identified by the Ministry and the Ministry will be placing them. And those who enrol themselves on their own will not be entitled to the scholarship of Nu. 70,000 per annum. So that’s the confusion the Ministry has to clarify about it,” added the General Secretary.
About 8,000 students registered online with the Education Ministry to study in private schools. But the Ministry will provide scholarships to only about 2300 students. The admission for private schools started on Monday and will close on Wednesday next week.
Sonam Pem
