May is come again! We are in the luxuriant boughs of the season’s goodness and abundances. 

In particular May 2 is here, a day of special significance for the nation and the people. This day we honour our teachers for what good they have done us and continue to do. We pay our tributes to our teachers this day for the light they brought us and continue to do so. And, to relate the significance of the day, this day we celebrate the vision of one man who saw the future of this proud nation. This season of rebirth and rejuvenation, we pay our deepest respects to His Majesty the Third Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.

May 2 will always be a special day for the Bhutanese because we have set aside this one day as our Teachers’ Day.

This year’s May 2 is doubly significant for Bhutan and the Bhutanese because we are celebrating the day in the most solemn and sincere of ways. When Bhutan began to open up to the world beyond, so to speak, we had to look to expatriates to lay a strong foundation for education system in the country the fruit of which is right before our eyes today. This May 2 is distinctly different too because more than 50 teachers from India who taught in Bhutanese classrooms for many years are here to celebrate with Bhutan what they could achieve by way of contribution to the Bhutanese society. For Bhutan and the Bhutanese, this is the most appropriate time to thank them truly.

May 2 of this year is so a time to celebrate our successes in the education system, but it is also, more importantly, a time look inward because often we lose the meaning of the day’s significance in the heat of celebrations. Our education system this day, like elsewhere, is fraught with challenges. We need to fix some broken walls. We need to understand why our teachers are leaving the system in alarming numbers. We need to figure how our education system should be able to make our children employable and enterprising.

These are issues facing our teachers and the education system today.

The happiness in the faces of our children and teachers this day should last forever because our journey does not end here. We look ahead, and beyond.

Advertisement