DEPARTMENTAL BRIEFS Education Secretary Interacts with Music & Dance Teacher Trainees Orientation for Pre-Primary Teachers Teacher Training Course Begins Workshop on Low Cost Teaching Aids at Ahmedabad Engineering Students Motivate School Children Annual Meeting of Heads of Sambhota Schools Held Tibetan Girl Excels SCHOOL FEATURE Tibetan Homes School, Rajpur PUBLICATION NEWS Publication News SCHOLARSHIP NEWS Scholarship News PROJECT NEWS Project News

THE NEWS

Education Secretary Interacts with Music & Dance Teacher Trainees Education Secretary Ven. Karma Gelek Yuthok met trainees undergoing two-year music & dance teacher training course at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA), Dharamsala on February 22. He spoke on the salient features of the Basic Education Policy (BEP) and responded to the queries from the audience. The staff and members of TIPA also attended the talk. The training course began in 2004 and the 20 trainees will graduate in May 2006. Orientation for Pre-Primary Teachers Department of Education conducted orientation courses for two batches of pre-primary teachers working in various Tibetan schools on the Basic Education Policy (BEP) at the College of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah, Dharamsala from March 15-23 & March 24-April 1. The course covered montessori system of learning, child care & education, role of teacher along with introduction to Basic Education Policy and traditional Tibetan system of education. Resource persons from Eklavya Institute of Teacher Education, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) gave practical instruction on Montessori system of education. Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, Kalon Thupten Lunrig & Education Secretary Karma Gelek Yuthok interacted with the participants, among others. In all, 66 teachers from 48 schools benefited from the course. Teacher Training Course Begins The DOE started a teacher training course for fresh college graduates at the College of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah (near Dharamsala). It was inaugurated by Education Kalon Thupten Lungrig on February 1. There are 30 trainees who will complete the course in April 2007. The course contents include methods of teaching, role & qualities of a teacher, traditional education system, history of education in Tibet as per BEP besides modern teaching methodologies. Workshop on Low Cost Teaching Aids at Ahmedabad Workshop on use of low cost teaching aids was conducted at Eklavya Institute of Teacher Education (EITE), Ahmedabad. Emphasis has been laid on the use of locally available resources and teacher's creative mind in making learning more child friendly and effective. Twenty-two primary teachers of Central Schools for Tibetans from various parts of India attended the workshop in two batches from January 23-February 4 & February 6-18 covering wide ranging areas in Maths and Science. Besides, they made class observation in the Eklavya School and also visited the famous Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram & Akshardham temple. Engineering Students Motivate School Children A group of four Tibetan students from Jabalpur Engineering College took voluntary initiative and visited Tibetan schools during their holidays to motivate students in choosing engineering as a career. Tenzin Tsangyang, Tenzin Wangdu, Tenzin Choegyen and Tenzin Tsedup visited Tibetan schools at Mussoorie, Rajpur, Herbertpur, Paonta Sahib, Clementown, Shimla and Dalhousie from March 12-18 at their own expenses. They had informal interactions with the students, sharing their practical experiences as engineering students and career prospects. Annual Meeting of Heads of Sambhota Schools Held The 7th annual meeting of the heads of STSA schools was held at Dharamsala from March 7-9. Discussions were held on various agendas, especially academic and administrative matters. External resource persons were also invited to speak on areas relating to maintaining school accounts, admission, montessori learning methods and moral values. In the opening day, Kalon Tripa (Chairman of Kashag), Education Kalon and Secretary gave separate talks on the salient features of the Basic Education Policy. There are 16 schools under the STSA with an enrolment of 2259 children (March 2005). Tibetan Girl Excels Miss Tsering Paldon, resident of Doeguling Tibetan Settlement, Mundgod was awarded the Dr. Krishna Prakash Memorial Award & Smt. Gangamma Ammanayya Memorial Award for her achievement in obtaining 1st rank and being chosen the Best Outgoing Student of B.Sc. Nursing 2001-2005 batch of the Manipal College of Nursing, MAHE University at the graduation day held on December 9, 2005. At the convocation function of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Deemed University) held on January 25, Chancellor Dr. Ramdas M Pai presented her the Dr. TMA Pai Gold Medal for the best outgoing B. Sc. Nursing graduate in 2004-05. The Department of Education congratulates her for the outstanding achievement. Tibetan Homes School, Rajpur Tibetan Homes School in Rajpur is a co- educational residential school. It is situated at the foothills of Mussoorie and is 15 km from Dehradun, the capital city of Uttaranchal State. It was established in 1977 by Tibetan Homes Foundation (THF) to meet the educational needs of children of local Tibetan community. It started as a primary day school with 20 students and four teachers. In due course of time the numbers of students increased and a need was felt to up grade to middle school. On 15 th November 1992 H.H.The Dalai Lama paid a kind visit to the school and consecrated the newly constructed school hostel. There on, the school was up graded up to middle level and hundreds of children from the main school in Mussoorie were transferred to Rajpur. It was further up graded to secondary level in the year 2001 resulting in major transformation of the school. Twenty new classrooms, three science laboratories, a triple storey library block, a career resource center and a computer laboratory were among the new infrastructure added to the school. The Tibetan Homes School is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi. In March 2004 the first batch of 43 students of class X appeared for the Board Examination. The students after their Class X are transferred to the main school in Mussoorie to continue their studies at the senior secondary classes. At school the teaching learning process is based not only on books, the school gives due importance on moral values, culture and traditions. Apart from observing religious festivals, the school organizes religious teachings to the students every Wednesday. The school regularly invites eminent speakers on different occasions to speak on different topics. The school emphasizes importance on the all round development of the students. Equal importance is given to co- curricular activities, which comprises of games and sports, literary activities, dance and music. These activities are conducted on the basis of inter- house and inter-class competition. The school participates in various inter-school cultural and sports competitions and over the years has won many laurels. At present the school has an enrollment of 568 students, of which 95% are residing in the hostels and at the SOS Tibetan Children’s homes. Presently the school has 32 teaching staff and 48 non-teaching staff led by Adminstrator Dr. Passang Dhondup and Headmaster Mr. Tsenlha Thakchoe. Project News Tibetan Land Program (Education):- The 2nd Tibetan Land program (Education) 2004-2005 which consist of text books and children's book publication, provision of teaching equipment, up-gradation of school libraries, career counseling & guidance, and youth education has been successfully completed in December 2005. The program was funded by SIDA and SOIR IM with a budget of more than Rs.10 million. It has effectively contributed towards overall improvement of Tibetan children's education. We take this opportunity to thank SIDA, SMC and SOIR IM for their support and assistance. Gangkyi school bus: A long awaited dream of replacing the old school bus of the Gangkyi Parent Association with a new one was fulfilled with major funding support from Save Tibet Austria and NCA Norway. It is being used daily to transport day scholars from Gangkyi area to Lower TCV School, Dharamsala. On behalf of the children and parents we express our thanks and gratitude to the donors for their generous support. Integrated Education Development Project:- The 2nd year activities of integrated educational development project funded by Comic Relief Fund through Tibet House Trust-UK have mostly been completed as per schedule. The activities implemented consisted of publications and textbook development, career counseling and teaching aids. We would like to thank the donors for their support which has greatly helped in improving the overall education of the children. Model School (BEP): The new BEP Model School which was inaugurated in October 2005 is progressing well as per plan. Despite undertaking major renovation of the whole complex last year, some minor repairs and renovation are done from time to time to accommodate various needs of the school. A submersible bore well has been drilled near the school to solve the acute shortage of water. All these would not have been possible without the help from our donors. Therefore, we express our heartfelt thanks to AET France, Tibet Fund USA, Mr. Dhondup Samtem and The Link Assets & Securities, London and the Department of Health, CTA for their generous financial support. Publication of two books on Tibetan literature: T wo new books titled Discussion on Tibetan Traditional Culture and a Dissertation on Tibetan literature have been published with kind funding from Duchess of York through THT London. The books were authored by Ven. Rethon Sangey (Kirti Monastery) Dharamsala. Over 1000 copies of each book were printed and distributed to all Tibetan schools in India, Nepal and Bhutan. We thanked both the donor and the author for their contribution. School supplementary diet program:- On the initiative by Dr.Lobsang Sangay and funded by Christopher Walter (US), this program started 5 years ago, has been providing additional nutritious diets to five northeastern Tibetan schools and Central Institute of Higher Tibetan studies, Varanasi. A similar project is also being supported by SOIR IM in other Tibetan residential schools. The program has been very beneficial to the students and we express deep gratitude to the donors and individual for their commitment and support. Primary classroom renovation (CST Paonta) :- Much needed renovation of primary classroom block was successfully completed on March 25 with kind funding support from Music Eight (Japan). The spacious new block would be functioning soon and we would like to thank our donor for their unflinching support to CST Paonta. Scholarship News The Department of Education has announced overseas scholarships for Atlantic UWC (Wales), Mahindra UWC (Pune), Hasting College (UK), University of Wyoming (USA), University of Edinburg (Scotland), MA Scholarship (Taiwan) and three years agricultural training at Japan's OSICA. The Department also announced CTA Scholarship for the year 2006 for higher studies within India and Nepal. Mr. Bhuchung Gungpa, Acting Manager, TCRC and Mr. Tsetan Jigme, Under Secretary, Department of Religion were selected for the first scholarships offered by Yuan-Ze University, Taiwan, to pursue MA in Computer Science & Engineering and Chinese Linguistics & Literature respectively. The High Level Scholarship Committee of CTA shortlisted 79 eligible candidates for 2007 U.S.Tibetan Scholarship Program (popularly called Fulbright Scholarship) for the final selection test and interview in mid-April in New Delhi. Of these, 49 candidates will be applying for Master's Degree (8 seats) and 30 candidates for Non-Degree Course (9 seats). The Department of Education received scholarship for higher education from various sponsors and institutions listed below. We are grateful for their continuous support. Name of Sponsor No. of Students Ecumenical Scholarships Programme, Germany 50 Central Tibetan School Administration, New Delhi 50 Tibet Foundation, UK 26 USHA, USA 25 Tibet Relief Fund, UK 18 Brett Vocational Fund, Canada 15 Aide A L'Enfance Tibetaine, France 12 American Himalayan Foundation, USA 12 Tibet Charity, Denmark 10 Danish Tibetan Society, Denmark 09 German Aid to Tibetans (Mrs. Imtraut Wager) 10 German Aid to Tibetans (Heide Meyer) 05 Tibet Charity, Sweden 04 Hiro Sukeyasu, Japan 13   Publications Three titles: Jiva Thachung; Norsang and Sheja Kuntue have been released and sent to all Tibetan schools. The first two are comic stories for children while the third one is mainly facts on Tibet in a nutshell and in chronological order. These books were sponsored by SOIR-IM, Sweden.

© Copyright tcewf | | Webmaster