The government’s plan to absorb another 1,500 students who are not qualified for class XI in the government schools next year has worsened the situation for the already distressed private schools. The government decided to do away with a cut-off point in class ten earlier this year.
Recently, the Private Schools Association of Bhutan submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering.
In its proposal, the association has recommended to call off class ten common examination. This is because the right to free education has been upgraded to class 12 with the introduction of full scholarships for all Bhutanese students.
The General Secretary of Pvt. Schools Association of Bhutan, Tshering Dorji said the common examination no longer serves its purpose of screening students based on academic performance.
“We are suggesting to do away with the common examination for class ten because from there they can save about Nu 50 M annually. And in five years, they can save a huge amount. To conduct public examinations, it’s a very expensive affair from drafting question papers to preparing results, providing TADA to the people involved.”
In addition, the association has also sought to completely remove the cut-off point system which the association feels still exists.
“Government said they are going to do away with the cut-off point but last year it was 59.9 per cent. And this year when we asked if the cut-off point is going to be there or not, they still said it will be there. So if they are serious on it, our proposal is to remove it completely. From whosever secures the first position till the person who actually just passed, they should be flattened and given an education voucher and let them choose to go to private or public schools,” Tshering Dorji said.
He also added if the students are given the choice instead of the education ministry attempting to place the students in the schools, the schools will compete to perform better in order to attract students.
Most schools stated that they ran in loss after the shift in policy. The 21 higher secondary private schools received about 4,000 class 11 students, this year.
“The first inconvenience is the fee structure. All the schools have existing approved fee structures. It existed in accordance with the kind of facilities that they actually give and the structures was approved by the ministry of education. So when it had to be flattened at 30 and 50 in considering of all the kind of different qualities that existed that was the first inconvenience,” Tshering Dorji added.
Meanwhile, the education minister said the ministry is currently working on the proposal submitted by the association. After a thorough study, the ministry will submit it back to the prime minister.
Sonam Pem
