2017 saw the highest number of teachers leaving the profession, according to the Annual Education Statistics 2017. A total 345 teachers left the profession last year of which 260 resigned voluntarily.
The education ministry sees teacher empowerment as a crucial step towards encouraging teachers to stay in the profession.
The ministry, therefore, plans to focus on empowering teachers in the 12th Five Year Plan by ensuring better work conditions and professional development opportunities.
“In the last five to six years, a lot of teachers have left. Of course, in terms of number and percentage, it is no different from civil servants leaving their organisations,” Education Minister Norbu Wangchuk said.
“Nevertheless, for teachers to leave the education system, even if it’s just one teacher leaving, it must be a concern for us. So how do we address this situation? Basically, we must dignify our teachers. We must accord respect to the profession of teaching,” the minister added.
Streamlining teachers’ workload, facilitating to send 350 teachers annually to pursue master’s degree and 80 hours of professional development yearly for teachers are some of the initiatives the ministry will undertake.
The ministry has allocated Nu 400 m for professional development in the 12th five year plan.
“The other is we need to provide fair and good working conditions to our teachers,” Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk said.
“Most of our teachers, especially in the remote dzongkhags, suffer from not having a proper and decent house to live in.Therefore, in the 12th plan, we are targeting about 80% of teachers to be living in the campus in government quarters built by the ministry. So, all of these, we hope would help in teacher retention.”
These initiatives are also expected to raise the standard and quality of teachers significantly.
