The Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) has decided to send students home from its entire constituent and affiliate colleges. The decision was reached after university executives met last night in a video conference.
The colleges are arranging for transportation.
The students will be sent in batches, starting tomorrow, and will not be allowed to leave college on their own. This applies to all the RUB colleges. While students are sent home, this is not a holiday and students will have to take online classes.
“We have a learning management system called the module virtual learning environment in all of the colleges of RUB. We have been reminding and alerting our faculty members of the need to be able to offer their courses online through the use of virtual learning platform from the day we saw the outbreak of coronavirus,” said Rinchen Dorji (PhD), the President of Samtse College of Education.
Several students from the two colleges of education are on teaching practice. The Samtse College of Education is exploring methods to ensure students get their required teaching practice time.
“We have already been in contact with some of our teaching practice schools and our students in the field. We have been informed by some of our students that the schools were in fact quite considerate in letting them be part of the online teaching that the Ministry of Education is adopting during this time,” the President added.
The RUB has decided to give stipend, while students are at home, to pay for Internet data.
While plans for online courses are in place and ready to roll out, the immediate concern now is how to conduct end semester examinations if the closure of schools and educational institutions continue due to the COVID-19.
“We decided that each of the colleges would think of an intervention or a measure on how to address such challenges. We have to be able to think of the best possible interventions to make sure the students’ assessments and practices are not affected,” he said.
Meanwhile, at the Samtse Higher Secondary School, students are all signed up for Google Classroom sessions. The school found only 28 students do not have access to a smartphone.
“Those who have smartphones can make use of the Google Classroom. But for those who don’t have, we are looking at alternatives. We might have to call them or send messages or something else. They will struggle a bit but we will figure it out,” said Tshetrim Dorji, the Principal of Samtse Higher Secondary School.
Online classes for all colleges will begin from Monday. While for high schools in Samtse, lessons have started on the Google Classroom. Some teachers are also using WeChat and Facebook Messenger to give instructions.
Sherub Dorji
