Employment: To ease the shortage of teachers, the education ministry is recruiting another batch of 290 Bachelor of Education (BEd) graduates on contract.

Another seven will be employed for shedras and lobdras.

While 290 will be deployed to schools across the country, seven BEd graduates will be recruited for monastic institutions such as Tango and Richenling Thorim Shedras and Dechenphodrang Zherim Lobdra and Walakha Anin Thorim Shedra. For Thorim Shedras, secondary BEd graduates would be sent while for Zherim Lobdras primary BEd each would be deployed.

No contract teacher will be placed in Thimphu thromde and Punakha. Most of the contract teachers will be sent to other dzongkhags.

The real vacancy for 2016 however was 270. “The other 20 was to fill up the gap left by those who had quit after getting selected as regular teacher in Bhutan Civil Service Examination (BCSE),” Ministry of Education (MoE) Human Resource Officer, Sonam Dorji said.

“Maximum number of contract teachers will be deployed to Samtse and Trashigang where the shortage is greater,” Sonam Dorji said.

Wangduephodrang, where teacher shortage was reported earlier, will also receive some of the newly recruited BEd graduates. A few might also be deployed to Paro, with an intention to meet requirements in Gunitsawa.

The education ministry is limited to only deploying teachers till the dzongkhag and thromde.

“The respective education officers in dzongkhag and thromde would decide the actual placements from dzongkhag depending upon the need of schools in their area,” Sonam Dorji said.

The recruitment of BEd graduates was done following an announcement by the MoE on March 14. The ministry announced a vacancy for 290 BEd graduates on contract for two years. Only applicants who secured 50 percent and above in the BCSE were eligible to apply.

During the signing of confirmation papers with the education ministry in Zilukha Middle Secondary School, yesterday, only 283 applicants were present.

“We are of the view that some of the applicants have not signed the confirmation papers,” Sonam Dorji said.

The final results will be known by March 23 during the placement. The placement will be done on a merit basis and based on subject specialization.

Of the 283 BEd graduates, 93 will be BEd primary who will teach subjects such as English, Dzongkha, Maths and Environmental Studies from preprimary to class III, while 147 were BEd secondary.

The remaining 43 are BEd Dzongkha. Only one of the Dzongkha teachers will be deployed to Gelephu thromde as the replacement for a teacher who had passed away.

Last year 200 BEd graduates were recruited on contract.

After three rounds of recruitment, over 610 teachers have been recruited in 2016 including 103 post graduate diploma in education graduates, 217 BEd graduates on regular and 290 on contract.

“With recruitment of 290 BEd graduates, teacher shortage will be resolved to a certain extent,” Sonam Dorji said.

Tempa Wangdi

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