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Samtse: Schoolwise in Sengdhen

Come 2007 and Bhutan will cross a significant milestone in its evolution as a nation.

The installation of Gongsar Ugyen Wangchuck as Bhutan's first hereditary monarch of the Wangchuck dynasty following the unification of the country was the beginning of a brave new world for this jewel of the Himalayas.

The covenant sealed on December 17, 1907, in Punakha's Palace of Bliss was, among other things, the affirmation of the most essential factor in the creation of a nation-state - the sense of solidarity.
Since then, diverse enlightened initiatives and instruments envisioned and pursued from the kingdom's serthri (Golden Throne) have refined and reinforced a consciousness of nation and national identity.

The early acknowledgement and provision of education as a powerful instrument in the creation and advancement of the idea of nation and nationhood has produced rich dividends. A call to engage the marvels of the Bhutanese mind, to affirm and celebrate the inner and the essential, to brave and to beckon the possible and the positive of the outer, and to commit the genius and creativity of the Bhutanese people has been a decision at once enlightened, at once courageous.

School near Thimphu

The national flag adorns the Bhutanese skies, the national anthem beckons the pupils in their tens of thousands, six days a week, nine months in a year across the length and breadth of our country calling us unto ourselves. The courses and curricula, the songs and the dances, the prayers and the observances, ceremonies and celebrations all serve to bring us home to ourselves and to our priorities. They bring us together - in our actions, in our thoughts, in our imaginations.

Sengdhen Community Primary School in Samtse's Dorokha Dungkhag

Sengdhen Community Primary School in Samtse's Dorokha Dungkhag is a case in point. Designed to bring the light of learning to one of the most disadvantaged communities in one of the remotest corners of the country, this school is the Lhop's window to the rest of Bhutan and to the world. Followers of a unique way of life with a distinct language, beliefs and rituals, customs and costumes, the Lhops or Doyas inhabit the seven villages of Jigme, Singye, Wangchuck, Sanglung, Satakha, Sengdhen and Lapchegaon that consist of some 120 households with about 1,000 members in all.

Deeply inward-looking and rather exclusive, the community chose to remain on its own for hundreds of years until the government tried to gently draw it into the mainstream of national life.

HM Queen Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck
and HRH Ashi Kesang Wangmo Wangchuck
The establishment of the community school at Sengdhen in 1987 has proved a significant step in the direction of weaving the Lhop community into the collective Bhutanese consciousness. The personal initiative of Her Majesty Queen Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck and critical inputs of the Tarayana Foundation have been instrumental in bringing the community into the national fold.

As dawn breaks and the whistle blows, the 393 boarders scurry and scramble towards the lone water-tap that feeds the 500 plus school population. A quick splash on the face and the little ones run, tying their belt and pulling the gho as morning study begins. A round of supervised study, some cleaning and it is time for breakfast.

As Jigme Tshering's steaming phikka (black tea) irrigates his soya power, the vapours mingle with those of the dew-soaked dust as it receives the first light of Sengdhen's Autumn sun.

Wet or dry, warm or cold, the near-end of the football field is the dining facility for the biggest boarding community primary school in the country. But Jigme and his friends sit, stand and squat as they roll soya-flour into a ball and relish a sip of phikka as they attend to the next impending bell.

Eight o'clock and this is assembly time. All the 485 students and six regular teachers plus three apprentice teachers and a non-formal education teacher are in attendance, barring a few. The sound of coughing and signs of cold are all too obvious. Many feet are bare.

Ordinary slippers are the order of the day. There are two speakers this morning. Jagat Bhujel aims to be a teacher after finishing his studies. He extols the value of education and the role of teachers. Tshering Dema highlights the importance of the national language and the need to promote it in her confident Dzongkha.

As the captain calls the house to order and unfurls the national flag, the best part of the assembly is, of course, the singing of the national anthem which resounds in the little village and immediately connects everybody to a bigger reality and a sublimer entity.

Sengdhen becomes Bhutan. The classrooms are minimally furnished and the facilities are spartan. The walls are a sparse text of mathematical symbols, science formulae, grammatical rules, some proverbs, poems, and health messages and teaching aids. The mid-November wind already whistles through the windows and corridors. The classrooms echo with the sound of learning as teaching goes on.

In isolated Sengdhen, the children's world is essentially defined by the teachers. They are the only reality beyond the children's family, neighbours and a few others further afield. That explains why most children do not see themselves doing anything except becoming teachers in the future.

Whether it is Sonam Choden or Sherub Dorji or Jigme Tshering of Class I, Sangay Pema of PP, or Mindu Zam of Class VI, teaching is their life's goal. Only Santa Kumar sees himself as a doctor and Chal Singh Lama aspires to be a driver.

A visit to their hostel in the evening will be enough to challenge even the most robust optimism.

The batteries of the solar-powered equipment have served the school faithfully, but replacing the crippled ones has been a proposition too expensive to afford.

The best the children do, therefore, is to improvise. But it is improvisation stretched to its limits. Groups of eight children sit around a low, feeble kerosene lamp and do their homework or try to goad their eyes to see the letters. There are smaller groups at times. Some have a half-burnt candle-stick that rushes to its end in the wake of the night-wind that takes liberties with the open windows. Others have no resource. They do the next best thing - huddle up in thin blankets and invite sleep on rough wooden beds. One cannot but wonder how these children will compete with their peers in better surroundings in the more advanced centres. There are no secure doors, but the head-teacher assures that there have been absolutely no untoward incidents of any kind so far.

It has been achieving better than average results in all the Class VI examinations and the pass percentage in other classes is quite high. The cultural and sporting life of the school is very rich. It was the winner of the inter-school football and volleyball tournament in Panbari recently. It hosts scouting and sports events regularly.

"Perennial shortage of teachers is our biggest problem," longest-serving head-teacher Kinley Tenzin agonises. "Next is the challenge of transporting over 70 tonnes of food items from Samtse to feed our big family of close to 400 members."

School girls in Wangduephodrang
But the adversities of difficult places are compensated for in other ways. Coming from different parts of the country, the teachers have developed a wonderful culture of cooperation, caring and sharing. They are deeply committed to the welfare of the children so evident in the many ways they relate to and look after the children many of whom are as young as seven years of age, yet stay in the hostel.

"Teaching the children of this remote place is both a joy as well as a challenge" to Siwan Rai, who has been here for over six years. "The innocence of the children and their respect are unforgettable" for others.

For 70-year old Mongal Dhoj Rai, who donated the land to build the school and the upcoming lhakhang, the coming of the school to their locality has provided "eyes to the community". Dorji Doya is "deeply grateful to the government for giving us a school in our poor community".

Some 331 students have graduated from Class VI since the school admitted 108 children in PP in 1987. The non-formal education programme has made its own critical contribution. The teachers are convinced that the advent of the school has brought about visible changes in the general life of the Lhop community.

School in Haa

Events like the celebration of our national foundation day or the birthday of His Majesty the King are much-anticipated occasions. The whole community converges on the school grounds to partake of the joy of the celebrations and to be part of the larger idea that is the nation and the symbols of our national life. Sengdhen Community Primary School has been a bulwark for fostering a sense of national consciousness in this fabled part of this land.

Contributed by Thakur Singh Powdyel for KUENSEL, Bhutan's national newspaper, 2006

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