Dharamshala: - At a workshop for primary school teachers, organized by the Education department to bolster early grade reading in Tibetan schools, Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay said that education continues to have top priority and that he spends 25-30% percent of his time trying to enhance the educational system.
"Education is a must for each and every Tibetan in exile. Therefore, we have to be ambitious in our approach. We have to make every effort to build on the capacity of every Tibetan by fully exploiting our available resources," Sikyong said.
The Sikyong also pointed out that education is a key for sustaining and strengthening the Tibetan struggle. He explained that it is only through education that the 2.5% of the Tibetans in exile can project the aspirations of the 97.5% of Tibetans in Tibet.
With the prioritization of education under the 14th Kashag, the Department of Education has launched a series of projects to broaden the scope and effectiveness of education in Tibetan schools. This resulted in a remarkable progress for Tibetan students this time in the Class 12 board exams, with a 150% increase from 2010 in the number of students who scored above 75 percent.
Talking about the role of teachers in Tibetan schools, the Sikyong said "The job of a teacher is of Himalayan proportion. However, a Tibetan teacher has a special and additional responsibility, as they are teaching not just for a career but for a cause." Admiring the work done by Tibetan teachers, he said that the education department has complied with all the suggestions and views expressed by the teachers during meetings and conferences. The DoE has been developing new ways and systems to develop human resource as well as the core mindset towards education in Tibetan community. Apart from these, several workshops and professional development programmes have been conducted for teachers as well as the public, to keep them abreast with the recent development in education.
In keeping with its innovative exercises and development programmes, the education department held a children's story-writing competition recently to boost Tibetan writing enthusiast, awarding the eleven best entries with cash prizes. The selected candidates were also given an opportunity to get trained as children's book writers and work on the 'Soen-Tsa-Series', a graded reading series initiated by the Department of Education (DoE).
