Education Minister says higher pay proposed for teachers

9 Indian STEM teachers paid 50% by Bhutan and 50% by India

There has been much controversy over the Ministry of Education and Skills Development’s (MoESD) plans to hire Indian STEM teachers and pay them Nu 140,000.

However, the MoESD Minister Jai Bir Rai said that Bhutan is only paying Nu 70,000 while the Government of India is paying the remaining Nu 70,000.

It has been learnt that the Royal Government of Bhutan had recently requested India for some good STEM teachers given the STEM teacher shortage in Bhutan. India offered a batch of teachers of which 9 were selected and half their pay is to be borne by the GoI.

Lyonpo said that there are some senior Bhutanese teachers who get paid around 70,000 and so the pay given from the Bhutanese side is not above what senior Bhutanese teachers get.

The remaining 70,000 is being given by GoI as the salaries of senior and good STEM teachers in India are very high and so this is to compensate them.

Lyonpo said that the 9 STEM teachers from India will not come just to teach students only but they will be sent to the Dzongkhags as lead teachers and they will have to also train Bhutanese STEM teachers and also conduct training in the Teacher Colleges in Samtse and Paro.

On if there are plans to hire more STEM teachers from India the minister said they will see how the first cohort of 9 teachers do and then decide from there. He said there is also a manpower reassessment going on.

On the issue of teachers pay the minister said once the 10, 15 and 20% professional allowance for teachers is implemented and if the Pay Commission accepts the recommendations of the MoESD then senior Bhutanese teachers could well end up getting Nu 140,000 or more.

Lyonpo said the ministry has given its recommendations to the 6th Pay Commission and it will now depend on if the commission has accepted it or not.

The minister said that the shortage of STEM teachers is caused in part by the Australia Rush but at the same time there is a global shortage of STEM teachers.

On the teacher shortage front he said around 100 teachers will graduate from Samtse in June and another 300 plus will graduate from the Paro College of Education in October.