to engage in education for decades, come up with occupational diseases, to any place first thought, education is to understand the local situation. When I arrived in Bhutan, the first question I asked the tour guide: What is the education system in Bhutan? Do students have to pay for school? What language is used for teaching? How many universities are there in the country? As a result, the tour guide was also confused by my question, and didn’t say why.
Children can speak English and have a natural happiness and relaxation
Staying at Punakana night, the hotel I stayed in is located on the hillside of a village. I got up for a walk at 6 o’clock in the morning and walked to the road below. I found a group of students in school uniforms sitting on the grass by the side of the road. I took the initiative to go up and chat with them. Children in Bhutan are not at all twitchy in front of strangers. This may be related to the fact that Bhutan has been open to the world for more than a decade, and people from all over the world have come to Bhutan for tourism. What’s more interesting is that every child can speak English. The little ones speak English a little bit, but the older ones speak English very fluently. The children range from grade 1 to grade 8. They all go to the same school. The school is in the town of Wangdupodran a few miles away. Students are picked up by school bus and take the school bus to school at 6:30 in the morning. If you can’t catch the school bus, you have to walk to the school by yourself, which is about half an hour. I ran into some students who were going to catch the school bus and asked them if they liked going to school. They said in unison. When asked what class they were taking, they replied that there were math classes, English classes, local Dzongkha classes, and science from the sixth grade. Class wait; ask them if they know China, they all say they know. They had schoolbags and meals in their hands, and none of them had a mobile phone. The children chatted with me in a lively way. When I asked if I could take a photo with them, they put on a camera posture and smiled at the camera together. The simple and lovely look is intoxicating. When the senior children were waiting for the school bus, they sat on the side of the road and took out their textbooks to read. I looked at their workbooks and found that the writing was very neat and beautiful. There is a natural happiness and relaxation in the children. In this country where the Buddhist spirit has penetrated into all aspects of daily life, people live peacefully, as if it has become a habit. I later realized that the reason why the children speak English so well is because all courses are taught in English except for Dzongkha.
I don’t see the pressure of studying at all
When I arrived in Paro, I asked the tour guide whether I could arrange for me to visit a school instead of the good schools in the city, but the general schools in the rural areas. The tour guide worked very hard and finally got in touch with Dukje Castle Junior High School on the edge of the mountain. We went to this school on a gentle slope in the afternoon. Rows of teaching buildings and bungalow classrooms stand from top to bottom on the campus. Although it is called a junior high school, it is actually a school from elementary school to high school. The principal called Kendall, came out to receive us. I explained my intentions and told him that I also engage in education in China. Seeing that I speak English well and I am engaged in education, he became enthusiastic, took us around the campus, and asked me what I needed. I asked if I could enter the classroom to take a look. He said that the students just happened to be over from school, and they could enter the classroom while they were still in class. We walked into a sixth-grade classroom. The children were doing self-study and homework. The desks and chairs were arranged in groups, much like the group discussion in a Chinese MBA class. I asked the principal whether they have always been grouped like this? The principal said this has always been the case, because learning from each other is as important as learning from the teacher. I had a simple exchange with the students and asked them if they liked learning and what they were studying. They showed me the textbooks. As a result, I saw all English textbooks for mathematics, English, and science. I asked the principal if all the teachers taught in English, and he said yes; I also asked if all the teachers were from their own country, and he also said yes. Then I went to a second-grade class, and the textbooks were all in English. I asked one of the children if they understood it, and she understood. I looked through the English textbooks and found that it was as difficult as an English textbook for the second year of Chinese junior high school.
After school, the children run and play on the campus and on the playground, and there is no sign of learning pressure. Many students play in the school until the evening before walking back down the road in groups carrying their schoolbags. The principal said that there is no school bus in this school. All children must walk to school and then walk back. The furthest student lives 5 kilometers away and needs to walk for an hour. But the children are very used to walking around like this, rain or shine. Compared with the spoiled children in some cities in China, the children here grow better despite the difficult conditions.
All public schools are free
of Bhutan all public schools are free, including to study at a university, are free.
From the students, I see a better hope for the future of Bhutan. These children who have grown up under the influence of Buddhism have a sense of peace and cheerfulness. They do not study for the sake of utilitarian competition, they show a kind of active absorption and calmness when reading. If Bhutan in the past became the country with the highest happiness index in the world, relying on the people’s resignation in the face of poverty, then under the guidance of the new education system, Bhutan in the future will become a more enlightened, advanced, modern but still In a peaceful and peaceful country, the happiness index of the people will definitely be very high.
