In a significant step towards promoting the national language, the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development (DCDD) is collaborating with Educare Skill, a private firm, to enhance Dzongkha learning through digital content. The online platform will be targeting young children. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the capital today. The Home Affairs Minister attended the event.
A commitment, the first of its kind between the government and a private entity to enhance the Dzongkha language, introduced a National Online Dzongkha Learning platform.
With over 450 digital content by Educare Skill, children can now learn Dzongkha easily at their convenience with free access.
For the first three months of the piloting phase, the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development and Educare Skill will support children aged three and above, as well as students from pre-primary to Class four.
Individuals can either go to the Educare Skill website or download the app from Play Store or App Store, free of cost.
According to the CEO of Educare Skill, the digital contents are made uniquely to attract children to learn Dzongkha through games, stories, and animation.
Tharchen, the CEO of Educare Skill said “Whatever content we have developed, it is made in Dzongkha. The content is created in such a way that our young children, when they watch, they will very much enjoy and learn so many things. For example, we have different types of content such as nursery rhymes, retail art videos, we have animation series, and we have even mobile games through which young children can learn Dzongkha alphabets.”
According to the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development, the collaboration is part of the 13th Five-Year Plan to create more digital content for Dzongkha.
“It is generally understood that children are not interested in learning Dzongkha, high school students do not know Dzongkha. Hence, to let children take an interest in learning Dzongkha, such a platform was created,” said Ugyen Dorji, Chief Language Development Officer.
He also said that it is important to create digital content with quality at par with those in English.
Depending on the success of the piloting phase, the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development will further work towards extending free access to a larger group of students and relevant target beneficiaries.
Sonam Yuden
Edited by Tshering Zam
