28 July 2010
Bhutanese educators go to Thailand and come back with experiences Bhutan is aching for. Pushkar Chhetri reports on how a school in Thailand is perfect destination for GNH teachers
Children at Sathya Sai School in Thailand
A prayer followed by an hour of moral story-telling and meditation. That is how students start their day at Sathya Sai School in Thailand. They attend classes not only to learn facts and figures, but also to dis cover inherent human values like truth, love, peace, non-violence and right conduct.
Tashi Chojur, the principal of Chukha Higher Secondary School, still remembers how ‘students hug their teachers warmly every morning to wish them’, which creates ‘a calm, friendly, and relaxed learning environment.’
Tashi Chojur was one of the 80 principals and teachers from Bhutan, who visited the model school located in the Lobpuri province of Thailand, about 300 km from Bangkok. Sending Bhutanese educators to the school is part of Bhutan government’s Educating for GNH programme.
Tashi describes the concept of teaching in Sathya Sai School as being based on the idea that whatever is taught is recorded in the sub-conscious mind of the students and later retrieved consciously. “Instead of telling the student what to do, the teacher dem onstrates it,” he said.
The school is known for its child-centred approach to teaching-learning and incorporating human values into the curricula. The teacher works more as a facilitator of learning.
Phuntsho Lham, an educa tion official, who also visited the school, said, “The students decide what they want to learn, and then the teachers gather the resources and let the students explore own their own.”
Phuntsho Lham observed that the teachers were keen on integrating human values into the curricula.
The students at Sathya Sai also learn and support vari ous environmentally-friendly projects such as energy saving. The project has been designed to make children energy-conscious and help them develop good habits that contribute to reducing the school’s utility bills.
The school is vegetarian.
The school uses kitchen waste to produce bio gas. It uses light reflectors in the dining room rather than too many lights to save electricity.
The teaching methodology at the school, Tashi said, is flexible. Teachers are allowed to teach in their own innova tive ways. He recollects how in an English class the teacher asks the students to find out how pizza is made. “Since the school is in a far-flung place, the students don’t know how to make pizza. So, that exer cise involved research, which included development of com municative skills,” he said.
Sathaya Sai School holds record for 100 percent of its graduates getting admitted to universities. The school has 330 students making up classes ranging from kinder garten to XII. The school has been located and designed to minimize external influ ences that could distract the students. Television channels are controlled and computing is restricted to the curriculum.
For a student to gain admission to the school, his or her parents have to sit for an interview and attend a three-day orientation camp. Training for parents is offered at the beginning of the academic year when the children are first brought to the school. The parents stay in the school with their children for two nights and three days for activities, demonstrations and lectures.
Bhutanese educators, who visited the school, say Bhuta nese teachers should change their attitude in order to adopt the Sathaya Sai model
of teaching-learning.
Till date, two batches of principals and teachers from 20 dzongkhags have vis ited the school. By the end of December, 2011, the educa tion ministry plans to train 7,000 teachers in the country. Phuntsho said that those who visited the school will train their colleagues on integrat ing human values into the curricula.
There are also plans to send dzongkhag education officers and assistant dzong khag education officers for a study visit to the school.
The project is funded by UNICEF.
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