August 1, 2024
THIMPHU – The education and skills development ministry’s school rationalisation initiative, aimed at efficient resource management and delivery of quality education, hasn’t gone down well with local leaders.
This initiative, many local leaders said, has resulted in increased rural-urban migration and left many villages without proper educational facilities.
Initiated by the former Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) government, the school rationalisation policy sought to promote teachers’ professional growth and ensure financial efficiency by reducing expenditures on small, unsustainable schools.
In 2019, the DNT government directed the education ministry to explore merging schools and restructuring them into primary (PP to class VI) or high schools (class VII to 10).
The officials from the erstwhile Gross National Happiness Commission, the Royal Civil Service Commission, and the education ministry began working on these proposed changes in 2021.
According to the State of the Nation Report 2023, the ministry has since merged 18 extended classrooms (ECR) and four small primary schools with larger nearby schools.
In addition, 18 lower secondary schools (LSS) and one middle secondary school (MSS) were downgraded to primary level, while two primary schools were upgraded to MSS, three LSS to MSS, and four MSS to higher secondary school (HSS) level.However, local leaders, particularly in remote gewogs, have raised concerns about the closures of ECRs that once provided accessible educational opportunities to nearby chiwogs.
“When nearby schools are closed due to low enrollment, it affects the community and adds to existing issues,” said a gup from Trashiyangtse.
He said that parents often migrate to urban areas to stay with their children, exacerbating rural-urban migration. “We talk about reducing rural-urban migration, yet the lone facilities in rural areas get closed,” he added, suggesting improvements rather than closures of facilities in these areas.
A gup in Zhemgang highlighted issues arising from villagers who initially offered their private land for school construction, only to now face pressure to remove the facilities.
“They offered their land thinking it would benefit the community, but now they pressure us to remove the facility,” he said. “Idle structures neither help the owner nor the community, and taxes still have to be paid without compensation.”
Some local leaders also worry about unused structures deteriorating or becoming targets for arson and other incidents.
“The government invested a huge amount in these infrastructures, and it is unwise to keep them unused,” said a gup in Samdrupjongkhar.
Some villagers have proposed alternative uses for these facilities, but no proposals have been accepted so far.
During the 13th Plan coordination workshop with the local government, the director general of the Department of School Education, Karma Galey, said that the consolidation initiative would continue in the 13th plan, arguing that Bhutan has too many schools for its population.
He clarified that the decision to merge or upgrade schools comes from respective dzongkhags, not the ministry.
Regarding plans for unused infrastructure, Karma Galey said that dzongkhags or other agencies could propose new uses as long as they benefit the public.
However, the National Land Commission has directed the ministry not to give the infrastructure away without a proper plan.
He added that furniture and equipment from closed schools could be redistributed to other schools in need within the dzongkhag or across other dzongkhags.
Despite these measures, some schools in geographically sensitive areas, like Nichula Primary School in Dagana, are still considered for operation even with low enrollment.
The issue was also raised during the last session of the third Parliament, but the ministry is yet to decide on how to utilise the infrastructures of closed schools.