The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Labor Ministry will send 15 University graduates to Thailand Vocational Training Institutes (VTI) as English teachers.
This is the ministry’s initiative planned since five years back. Initially, around 172 graduates competed for 19 slots but 15 students were selected and 4 as standby after all the written exam and viva-voce.
The selected candidates will leave for Thailand by the first week of October.
With the help from Paro College of Education under Royal University of Bhutan, they were provided with crash courses to teach English in Thailand VTIs.
According to the labor minister Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi it was a win-win initiation which was planned from 2008. But it could not take off due to the clashes between Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC), Labor ministry and Education ministry.
He said it would be a good initiative to pave way for human resources from the Thai government to Technical Training Institutes and hospitality industry in Bhutan, which is in dire need of competent instructors.
“We have plan to restructure all Technical Training Institutes (TTIs) as centre for excellence and introduce research and innovation in it in the next five year plan,” said Labour Minister.
Therefore through this initiative the ministry expects to get some technical professions which can help in coming up with training courses efficiently.
Also this would help to introduce new courses and arrange particular institutes for one training course and gather all the financial and human resources in place and train efficiently.
Thai economy is fueled by tourism and it is backed by technical professionals graduating from Thai VTIs.
Thailand has around 430 VTIs under the Office of Vocational Commission (OVC) and it is the main man power supply to the tourism industry.
“They were in need of competent English teachers, while we were in need of human resources,” Lyonpo said.
Initially, the ministry assigned the education ministry to select the experienced English teacher to teach Thai VTI trainees for one year. But Bhutan Civil Service Rules (BCSR) doesn’t have provisions to send teachers on deputation board.
Therefore the education ministry gave up the idea (to send teachers to Thailand) though it would be an incentive for Teachers who performed well.
Similarly “In Thai civil service rules, Instructors were not able to come for a long term and could hinder in their promotion for violating rules and regulations,” said Lyonpo Dorji wangdi.
Meanwhile the selected candidates are excited with the prospect to go and work in a new place. They said it would be a good experience and exposure for them.
According to labor officials the selected candidates will teach for a year on contract, with an initial salary of Thai Baht 18,000 or about Nu 27,000 in a month.
They will also be provided with free accommodation, in-country transportation and health insurance.
Our Teachers should not wait for the government or RCSC. If they want, they must explore the employment opportunities in Thailand themselves. 18000 or 27000 bath a month doesn’t look so attractive though.
There are many Rcsc selected but not qualified for civil sevice who scored more than 50% and yet remained without job. The govt of bhutan could have given opportunity to these graduate who are qualified enough or to those interested teachers in service if not to those volunteer teachers who are doing teaching on contract with graduation to go to Thailand as a teacher..It is basically not fair to select those graduate who even could not qualify preliminary exams and even scored less than 40%…Teaching is not the process of chatting and cheating…Will these people keep up the expectation of Thailand and the reputation of our Nation? You may take a dictation and see simply their standard in spelling .. We feel there is some problem in the selection procedure or the set strategies might be having a misconceptions… It is just my opinion as an informed person… What do you think my fellow citizen and particularly teachers who are really, really deprived of any opportunities but often welcome for unnecessary blame without any gratefulness… Teachers… Please think and ask for the equity and justice till the DPT is singing arround you with their Slogan
It was a free and open competition. Did you bother to even try? Anyone could have applied if they were not under current obligation to their employer, even you RCSE passouts. Of course, I doubt you would have done as well in this competition. The RCSE is a joke that tests very little actual skill and I doubt you could have done as well in this open competition. It’s not like these people were just selected randomly – they had to do well in their own tests. Many of them did very well in the RCSC PE this year but went for this instead. Don’t be such a jealous loser because you didn’t get through… let’s not pretend those people who pass the RCSE are anything special.
So maybe you did OK on the Maths section or Dzongkha section of the RCSC exam and got through the PE. Who gives a damn? Does that mean you can teach English? I don’t think so. “Opportunities” …as if this is something you deserve, like everyone should be there to feed you your whole life. Grow up – if you wanted to try for this you could have done so, it was a fair and open competition. Maybe you just didn’t get through and you’re green with envy. The grammar and language of your post suggest it would be a big mistake to let you teach English to anyone.
GOOD INITIATIVE Labor Minister. Try to depute more of such teachers. Also make sure that this first batched behaved well and pave better path for future lots.
GOOD INITIATIVE Labor Minister. Try to depute more of such teachers. Also make sure that this first batch behaved well and paved better path for future lots.
It is a good initiative and may pave the way for our future teacher graduates. However I am little confused. Did we send competent English teachers as stated by Sherig Lyonpo. I think Thailand requires competent English teachers and not just anybody who knows how to speak and write English. If we are not careful quality may be compromised.
bago
Gud 4 DPT who want 2 cheat youths now 4 vote as they successfully cheated whole iletrate citizen in 2008. Teachers too need leader(lynpo) who can speak for subordinates. Not just 2 order but to take the concerns of subordinates too.
Well done Thailand. I’m glad you chose our Bhutanese accent.
hope you all do well…our best wishes are alys with you all interested teacher n hope yu all dnt hover like wat happned wid light drukyul contract teachers…2008…all the best….