Beginning next year, students undergoing Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) will have to attend the training for 18 months instead of nine months. This is to adequately train and improve the quality of teachers.
The decision was made last year after the education ministry submitted a proposal to the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC). The selection of students for PGDE course will take place later this year through the Bhutan Civil Service Examination (BCSE).
With the new change, the PGDE graduates undergoing 18 months programme will get their first promotion in four years including probation period. The promotion was only after five years for nine months of PGDE programme.
“Studies were done earlier by erstwhile REC and other studies done by college themselves. The feedback, we received was the course was too short for them to learn. They are not adequately prepared for teaching secondary schools. So one thing they found was teaching practicum. Teaching practicum is a time where the trainees they go to the schools to teach. So it was just for four weeks. A month teaching practicum was found to be too short,” Tashi Lhamo, the Chief Programme Officer of Teacher Professional Service Division under MoE, said.
She added the 18 months training will give graduates enough time to reflect on their practices.
“Now with extended duration of 18 months, they will have six months, one whole semester of teaching practicum. So the first month they would be with their mentor, observing their classes, how he/she teaches and then they would teach. Then maybe in the third and fourth week, maybe they can teach on their own. See there is a difference.”
Besides extending the PGDE duration, the education ministry will discontinue the Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) Secondary programme from July this year.
“The colleges of education will not recruit anymore B.Ed Secondary students, again this is to improve the quality of education. The reason was that studies have found that B.Ed Secondary graduates are not very competent to teach in Higher Secondary Schools. They are supposed to teach from seven to twelve,” Tashi Lhamo added.
Hereafter, PGDE programme will replace B.Ed Secondary. But B.Ed primary will be retained. This year, the RCSC has announced 265 vacancies for education services, 60 more seats compared to last year.
