Children and parents are concerned with the implications if the closure of schools continues for a longer period due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the Education Ministry has formed a task force committee including various stakeholders to work on options to consider assessing and promoting students based on planned learning outcomes.
Karma Tshering, the Officiating Secretary for Education Ministry said the promoting options will be for classes PP to IX and class XI. “For the other two classes that are class X and XII, we are thinking about prioritised curriculum because these two grades have high stake examination conducted although class X, of course, have home-based. But certainly, we need to give some more attention to class XII. And when I say prioritised curriculum, it is not theme-based, we will focus on subjects but not covering all the contents as we normally follow under normal situations,” he said.
However, if the situation improves within May then students will come back to schools and follow the normal curriculum. But if the schools remain closed for a longer period, the officiating secretary said, the ministry is looking at promoting all students based on a particular assessment or making all students repeat.
The Officiating Secretary said the options to promote or detain the students will be looked into weighing all pros and cons. “Now when we look into this, we also have to look at the implications of it. And for this, we are working on it,” he added.
While the ministry is working on various other options for the government to consider, they say that promoting students seems to be a good option. The officiating secretary shared that making all the students repeat will be a huge loss on the economy and human potential.
For now, the students across the country are continuing their education through various platforms such as broadcast media, YouTube and Google classroom among others.
Sonam Pem
