Teachers are law Abiding Citizens

This piece was written way back in 2012...

With Gross National Happiness (GNH) ceremoniously walking into the school premises, our students are growing up to be happy citizen of Bhutan, at least that’s what we the adults expect and started believing. That’s for what the government is investing a lot of interest and the teachers in the schools are blistering to the extent of drenching themselves into sweats of endeavor. It has done a gross lot of good in keeping the teachers happy as well, for it came with additional human values to make one smile and laugh in times of condemnation. It has succeeded in generating the valiant figure in the hearts of teachers. Teachers of this state have bowed to the service they are entrusted. They work hard to dumb the still-going-on ‘deriding murmur’ against the quality of education – which to put upright, people have always thought, is solely the teachers’ responsibility

But the teaching profession in our country has become an entrapment , as of now. One is trapped in obligatory service for at least ten years if happened to fall in the clutch of  Ministry of Education (MoE). A teacher can’t inter-change the ministry unless he/she spends lengthy ten years under MoE. 

By choice or by chance; born to be teacher or learnt to be teacher, the teachers are toiling day in and night out to fight against the ignorance of illiterate and innocence of youth. They have always taken the profession as a means to help others grow, and neither did they wish to make a fortune of wealth out of it nor have they enjoyed a glorious human crave for social status. Only often do they wish for a life of the other people and so seldom do they chance to find rare opportunities to get to think of their own interest – want to exercise their talent and skill in particular field – want to work in better place and with better scope. But that is now, prevented and averted by the policy of ten years service for MoE FIRST!

I only wish if the teachers are given due human respect to pursue their enthusiasm and interest along with their talent after serving in the profession at least for five years. What ever done is surely done for good purpose and all know the spirit of the policy – it is for retaining the teachers in the job. But more than that, at times, to consider the human interest and their efficacy in performance with and without motivation must be looked into in depth. The retaining measure found in this policy is bit punitive and not really amiable to the abiders. Teachers are law abiding citizens; they deserve to be free in all their pursuits. 

If this is the approach the government has found to keep the teachers tied to their profession and fights the teacher-shortage-issue, the government also has to find this line of attraction to bring influx of new generation into teaching profession in deluge. This profession is by no means attractive to the people of our country.

Ask the youth if they want to become teacher later in their lives; surely, the percentage would score so low. See what happened with the unfilled slots for the contract teachers under Light Drukyul Project. 300 slots were announced by the Ministry: 200 general, and 100 Dzongkha language teachers of which not even half the slots announced are filled. It is not to wonder what these young Bhutanese want out of their education. It is a determiner for the authority concerned and people responsible to worry about what makes the teaching profession so ugly that it repels the youths from making it their priority profession.