In the past, it was common to see adopted brothers and sisters among students in schools. The trend slowly disappeared with time. However, in Bjednag Primary School in Wangdue Phodrang, the school authority is encouraging students to adopt one another as brothers and sisters.
This is being done as most students walk to the school for almost an hour and the senior students help the younger ones.
The Principal of the school, Tshering Wangdi said small kids are not taken care by anybody. “So, we teachers thought in order to take care of small kids, we have adoption programme in the school. Let them have brothers and sisters, then those brothers and sisters will take care of them. They will feel more secure and there might be some kind of changes in their learning.”
Some of the senior students say it is helpful. “We can help small children; sometimes they are not able to open their lunch boxes, so we help them,” says Nima Tshering.
“We help them to tie their belts, carry books and lunch boxes as they are small,” says Tandi Padey.
Parents in the locality are happy with such initiative from the school. “We are worried when our children have to walk to school through the forest because they are small. They might also fight and injure themselves. So by making this adoption programme, our young children are looked after by the older students,” says Wangchuk, a Parent.
It is benefitting everyone at the moment, says our reporter, Kuenzang Thinley.
The school is also planning to share their idea with other schools facing similar problems.
