Trainees from Paro and Samtse assured full employment

Member of Parliament of Nanong–Shumar constituency, Dechen Zangmo, during the question-hour session of the National Assembly asked the Education Minister on the ministry’s strategies and plans to ensure full employment to the teacher trainees from the two teacher training colleges in Paro and Samtse.
She said 562 teacher trainees will be passing out from the colleges soon. She voiced their concerns on finding employment after graduation as finding employment for teachers has become major issue since last year.
Further, MP Dechen Zangmo said that there are about 285 contract- teachers whose terms have expired or will expire soon, and there are another 200 trainees left out from last year’s BEd batch, which will add  the total number of unemployed teachers, which is more than 1000.
Following the question, the Education Minister, Mingbo Dukpa, said that each year hundreds of teacher trainees are passing out and the government is trying to provide full employment since education is deemed as vital in the country.
Lyonpo Mingbo Dukpa said that when it comes to recruitment of teachers, the number of students seeking admission will directly affect the number of teachers to be recruited.
“Higher the students, higher number of teachers will be recruited,” the Education Minister said. Lyonpo said that the recruitment of teachers is also being discussed with Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC).
According to the Education Ministry, as per April 2015, there are 7122 permanent teachers, 895 contract teachers. From a total of 8017 permanent and contract teachers, 718 of them are principals and vice principals.
Lyonpo said that the requirement of teachers will be more if a ratio of 1: 32 is not being met, meaning if a single teacher should handle more than 32 students in a class.
However, he said that, as of now, in most of the schools across the country, a single teacher has to handle an average of 20 students only.
Reading out the report of teachers resigning from the ministry, Lyonpo shared that about 227 CBT teachers’ contract will expire, 118 contract teachers will end their contract period and about 40 more teachers are due for superannuation. In addition Lyonpo said that about 140 teachers will go for further studies. Therefore, Lyonpo said that about 650 vacancies for the teachers will be made available hereafter.
Depending on the trainee’s competency, Lyonpo Mingbo Dukpa said that they will have the opportunity to teach in universities, Shedras, Drubdeys and other institutes.  The private schools across the country will absorb many teachers who are trained.
After the introduction of center schools, the requirement of teachers has increased significantly and those trained teachers can also be recruited as a games, agriculture, health, cultural teachers in center school across the country.
Meanwhile, the Labour Minister, Ngeema Sangay Tshempo, supplemented that last year alone about 416 teacher trainees graduated from the two colleges and this year about 533 will be passing out.
Last year, RCSC announced vacancies for only 118 teachers. Lyonpo Ngeema Sangay Tshempo said that a meeting was held between Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, Ministry of Education, RCSC and Gross National Happiness Commission to work out a sustainable solution to the problem of teacher employment.
Lyonpo said that from 416 teacher trainees graduates, 182 were recruited as permanent teacher, 121 were sent to teach in Thailand, 7 in India and the remaining trainees were recruited in private schools in the country.
He also shared that the ministry has memorandum of understanding signed between the governments of Thailand, Bangladesh and India in recruiting more teachers from next year.
Lyonpo stated that teachers will be absorbed in 388 firms including private schools, shedras and rabdeys in the country. As per the recruitment plan for teachers from 2016 to 2020, Lyonpo said that in  2016 alone, about 541teachers will be recruited,  in 2017 about  373 teachers are to be recruited, 270 will find employment in 2018 ,  in 2019 about  224 teachers are to be employed,  and in 2020 about 222 teachers will be recruited, creating 1630 vacancies for teachers.