The graduates who studied Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies at the College of Language and Culture Studies (CLCS) in Tagtse, Trongsa can now pursue Post Graduate Diploma in Education in History starting this year. The news comes as a relief to some 250 students currently studying the programme in Tagtse college. The students were unhappy when the Royal University of Bhutan discontinued the programme in July this year reasoning that the graduates of the programme do not even fulfil the subject requirements for Post Graduate Diploma in Education.
The news comes following a letter from the Royal Civil Service Commission to the management of College of Language and Culture Studies in September this year. According to the RCSC, the graduates who studied the revised programme of Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies will be eligible for the Post Graduate Diploma in Education in History from this year. According to the College management, this is because the programme revised in 2018 includes world and Indian history. And these are subjects required for the Post Graduate Diploma in Education in History.
“We now took into consideration what was lacking before in the programme because when we launched the BHS program in 2012, it was not really targeted towards teaching history but focused on giving the broader perspectives of the Himalayan studies that the Bhutanese would find it meaningful,” said Lungten Gyatsho, President of CLCS.
“As per the revised programme, even for three years programme, the students study about 18 modules just related to history and honours programme have a total of 23 modules,” said Sangay Phuntsho K, Programme Coordinator for Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies at CLCS.
The Royal University of Bhutan discontinued the Bhutanese and Himalayan studies in CLCS along with two other programmes in Samtse College of Education and Sherubtse College from July this year. The RUB stated that the graduates of these programmes are not accepted anywhere in the job market. An official from the RUB also said that more than 60 per cent of the graduates from these programmes are still unemployed. From the College of Language and Culture Studies, close to one thousand students studied Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies and graduated since 2015.
“The college discontinued the course when we are in the middle of building the foundation for a career. This will create an impression in the job market that our course is valueless. It will also damage our image among the employing agencies. So, the news impacted us adversely. People also started commenting about irrelevance of our programme on social media,” said Lok Bdr Ghallay, a student pursuing Bhutanese and Himalayan Studies at CLCS.
“Even our parents in the village think there are two programs in the college; one that guarantee job and the other which do not. And they consider the students studying Himalayan studies as the ones who do not get job,” said another student Kinzang Pem.
The RUB discontinued the programme and introduced a new programme to align the programmes in various colleges to the need of the job market.
Passang, Trongsa
