The Bhutanese Leading the way.
As a tribute to the 60th birth anniversary of the fourth Druk Gyalpo, 2015 was declared as the National Reading Year. Every school across the country took part recording the number of books read by the students.
The first price was bagged by the Zilnon Namgyelling Primary School in Thimphu. The first price includes the rolling trophy along with numerous books for the school and the certificate signed by the Prime Minister. There were also various books for the second and third prizes respectively.
Kuenzang Thinley, Principal of Zilnon Namgyelling Primary School said that bagging the first prize among schools in the whole nation was a huge surprise though vigorous efforts had been put into it. He said “Upon hearing the news, our students and teachers were very happy that the effort has been recognized” adding that given such recognition, the motivation has been lifted to a much higher level for the students and teachers.
The school kept strict records of the number of books read by the students and other regular activities like morning speech was replaced by a reading session in the morning assembly for at least twice a week. The classes started with reading for fifteen minutes. At least two periods in a week were kept for the reading period. The parents were also made aware about the reading activities, the impact of reading and they were encouraged to ensure their children read more books.
The school is expecting the same outcome for this year too.
The second and third was bagged by Changzamtok Lower Secondary School (LSS) and Jigme Namgyal LSS respectively.
Changzamtog LSS principal Karma Drukpa said, “We are much motivated to further enhance our strategies and activities and we promised to ourselves to bring a better result in the coming years.”
Every ten minute in school is given for reading before starting the class for the students, as well as for the teachers too.
He said reading gives life-long learning skills to the students and future generations and even helps them refrain from bad habits. His school read a total of more than 52,000 books this year.
