Address on Teachers’ Day Celebration (2^nd May 2012)

I feel so warm and honored to stand here today. Like Lewis Carroll, I feel, time has come for me:

    “to talk of many things;

Of shoes – of ships – and sealing wax –

Of cabbages – and kings –

And why the sea is boiling hot –

And whether pigs have wings.”

However, time is so precious. In the interest of time, I will speak only few important points and leave the rest. Anyway, I pray that I do not get carried away by the whirlpool of my own thoughts in the process.

In my 14 years of teaching service, I have been in different schools in various capacities, have celebrated the days, much honored with words of praises, but my heart remained empty. Frankly speaking, today, my longing heart is filled till its brim by your smile, your sincere thoughts and your pure love.

The way one does itself passes a lot of messages to us. This unique preparation for the celebration has made me believe that you all have done it with real feelings for the teachers from deep within your hearts. This touches our heart and transforms us to thinking better, concerning, loving and reflective human beings.

Other thing speaks of your respect for teachers. Last time during our school rimdro, Venerable Lam Naten told us ‘to respect our superiors for one day when we become somebody ourselves, everything would happen as we do it to our superiors now.’ Three days back, HE Jangtruel Y Rimpochhe also taught us the law of karma – action and reaction. If we do good we accrue good merit and vice versa. I feel that this ‘respect’ is a long chain that binds us to God. You respect us, we respect our masters, our masters respect their masters and ultimately the ones at the top would have drawn their inspiration from God. Thus, we are bound to God.

Obviously, when we are with God, it is impossible not be inspired, and not get anything out of Him. We will get everything we want.

I keep telling you that we are GNH students and that we should live by GNH principles and philosophies. ‘Tha Damtse’ is one philosophy of GNH. Law of Nature or Uncertainty of Life does not permit us to live together forever. We must part. But, we must not forget the time, things we had done together once. We must not forget to wish at least ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ even if we meet elsewhere. That is ‘Tha damtse’. It is my proudest moment to see our friends from Sherubtse College with us today. They have come crossing miles sacrificing their precious time and energy to celebrate this august moment with us. This is ‘Tha Damtse’. I thank all of them for finding time to look back to remember us. However, I need not welcome them. They know, it is ingrained in their bones that this school is their permanent home. They can come in and go out anytime. But, at least today, please do enjoy the moment with us in the same rhythm as we do.

In my school days, I have always considered my teachers as rationale being – social thinker, torch bearer – the ones who shows light through darkness, guide – who gives detailed information of everything, trouble handler – who takes us out of troubles, light giver – who shows the path to our destination, and all-knowing – knowledgeable.

This morning, I got lots of SMS from my ex-students. One of them wrote, ‘teachers can easily substitute an actor, but an actor can, in no way substitute a teacher.’ Another wrote, ‘Batter than a thousand years of diligent study is a moment together with great teacher.’ That is what a teacher is. You have known who a teacher really is. Thanks for that.

What I believed about my teachers came to be true. What I am now is all because of my forth coming, warm-hearted and caring ‘Gurus’. Today, in this august gathering, I take a moment to thank all, living as well as the ones who left for their heavenly abode. I pray for the long life and the peace of mind respectively.

It is needless to mention how auspicious today’s day is. The culmination of three important events; His Late Majesty, Third Druk Gyalpo’s Birthday, Sherig Century Celebration and Teachers’ Day are all the reasons. On top of it, in our school, spices have been added by the presence of our staff members with their ever ready cultural programs, presence of Sherubtseans and CE candidates with their items as well.

To usher the moment of joy, without making you all become impatient any longer, I join my hands with all Sherubtseans, CE candidates and all my dear boys and girls here, in expressing my special happy teachers’ day to all teachers and support staff members of our school. HAPPY TEACHERS’ DAY!

May you all and your good deeds continue till eternity!

May your hearts remain green forever!

May you get strength to lead our youths forward!

May your wishes get fulfilled unconditionally!                                     

                                                  Thanks and thank you all so much!!!

Recommendation for Education Monitoring Officer II

This is to recommend Mr. Jigme Tshering, EID # 200601187, Master teacher of Baylling HSS for the post of Education Monitoring Officer II which was announced recently through education website. This recommendation is partially based on the interest being expressed by himself and partially after making in-depth study about his capability and suitability for that post.

In the academic year 2012, he had shouldered and executed numerous activities related to the job of monitoring officers. Of the three coordinators, he was Academic Coordinator and was looking after the academic programmes of our school since the completion of his masters degree. In the capacity of Academic Coordinator, he did not leave any stone unturned in academic areas. He had borrowed the ideas and redeveloped lesson plan format for the convenience of our teachers. He was also a person who simplified classroom lesson observation form and criteria for observation for our mentors and mentees. Similarly, he had developed school assessment policy and rubrics to effectively and conveniently carry out class works, home works and project works. Supervision was also carried out sincerely. Under his leadership, academic activities of our school became effective and students were engaged meaningfully. This may be one reason why our school performs very well in academics every year.

He was department head for Chemistry and Biology subjects. At regular interval, he did conduct subject related discussions with his subject teachers. As per his observation and record, a report was made during the monthly review meeting at the end of every month. He worked with unparallel commitment and concern for the well being of students. He wanted our students to excel in academic performance. To that effect, he developed a format for remedial classes and sought help from fellow teachers to apply it on trial basis. All teachers came to learn of its friendly nature and agreed to use it as means to record remedial classes thereafter.

He is, in the true sense of my word, a very resourceful person. He widens his caliber by conducting research works. He conducted research work on his own and took part in sharing his findings at Paro College of Education in one International Forum. He also took part in sharing his research works at Sherubtse College on two separate occasions. He had resourced the process to carry out action research in our school under ‘professional development programme’. This encouraged and motivated our teachers to engage themselves in reflecting about their own works. Subsequently, our English teachers decided to find out the reasons for our students’ poor performance in English and discover new ways to help students. In addition, group of Science teachers also worked on a topic and participated in an international forum at Sherubtse College. I even got appreciation call from Academic Head of Sherubtse College for encouraging teachers to engage in professional development programmes.

Our country being highly susceptible to disasters, we were reminded to remain prepared for any disaster. So, one major programme of our present school system, irrespective of a type of schools, is ‘disaster management programme’. He was head of evacuation team under disaster management profile. Under him, so many mock drills related to earthquake were conducted. There is no guarantee that a disaster may strike only during day hours. So, he insisted on having mock drills even at night for boarding students. He could also provide training to different teachers on the use of first aid kits, handling different materials associated with search and rescue during the times of disasters.      

He was also Rover and Scout master of our school. In addition to training being provided to our students, he made our students take part in regional and national level camps. Along with scouting programme, he could instill in our students a great love and passion for environment and nature. Scout members developed nature corner in our school. He could take our students to Khamdang area, which is about 34 kilometers from Baylling to plant saplings. They planted around 300 saplings in that area with the support from Department of Youth and Sports. Through his own initiative, he too could carry out a study on the pattern of cultivation in our region. On all these accounts, he was nominated for ‘Environment Conservation Award’ on the occasion of Silver Jubilee Celebration of RSPN in 2012.    

Besides, he made numerous contributions to school in the capacity of resource person for professional development programme, school management team, school admission team, school discipline committee and subject teacher. In any capacity, he made tremendous contributions and left clear footprints for successors to tread on securely.

His departure from our school would leave big vacuum in our school. However, respecting his individual aspiration, I wish him good luck!

Yonten Jamtsho