The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has outlined strategies to tackle the teacher shortage in the country. Education and Skills Development Minister, Jai Bir Rai, during the question hour session today said strategies such as hiring substitute teachers and offering immediate employment to Bachelor of Education graduates as contract teachers will help address the teacher shortage.
Maenbi-Tsaenkhar MP, Choki Gyeltshen, raised concerns about teacher shortages causing inconveniences and challenges to students in schools and asked the minister about new ideas and measures to address the shortage.
“The ministry’s various initiatives such as Bhutan Baccalaureate, BPST, IWP and the need for ‘Need Improvement’ are encouraging a lot of teachers to put resignation. In light of this, what kind of new ideas and measures have the ministry taken to address the teacher shortage?”
To this, the minister said besides employing contract and substitute teachers, allowing retired teachers to continue teaching as contract teachers will help address the shortage.
“One of the ways to address the teacher shortage is by increasing the retirement age for teachers by a few years. And for those who have passed the retirement age, they will be allowed to continue teaching as contract teachers with the same salary, along with an additional contract allowance of 30 per cent,” said the minister.
In addition, the minister said the ministry will assign 133 Postgraduate Degree holders from the Samtse College of Education to various schools.
Furthermore, 176 upcoming Bachelor of Education graduates will be hired as contract teachers for six months followed by the opportunity to take the Bhutan Civil Service Examination. Based on their results, they will be employed as regular or contract teachers in schools.
According to the education and skills development minister, about 500 teachers resigned so far this year. The country currently has a shortage of 800 teachers.
Tshering Deki
Edited by Sonam Pem
