Dear Ministry of Education

Dear Ministry of Education

Sorry for having called the ministry ‘dear’. You might point it to be an inappropriate salutation to address a big organization like yours a dear. But I am helpless. I have been to schools which are under your ministry that now I feel the ministry a very dear one. But you know some people right under your ministry call the kind of education system you have, useless. Some people say they sent children to school to get educated but they come out after thirteen years of education as a donkey. A week ago I met a frustrated graduate who said that he got government scholarship to do a four years course outside and after he completed the course and came back to Bhutan, government didn’t have job in Bhutan related to his course and now he is placed as a teacher. A frustrated teacher he is he said. I have many other stories of such kind to tell but today I have something different to bring under your notice.

Firstly, the English text has four sections- short story, play, poem and essay, which are expected to be learned. But sadly, I didn’t get to learn some of the poem and essays. It is because of fact that during examination, no questions are asked from essays and poem that we learn in class but asked from short story and play only. Hence, some teachers omit this part and never teach essay and poetry to the students for no questions are asked from these parts. And the ministry might have noticed that in English II, students perform very poor in essay and worst in poem whereas the same students perform well in the play and short story. When a teacher never teaches what a poem is, what its components are, how to comprehend them and how to write them, I think it’s not fully a student’s fault for having not performed well in English paper. If you wonder how not doing well in poetry hampers the result, I must sadly tell you, it does.

Secondly, you might have heard people saying, “…he has completed class twelve, and he still doesn’t   know how to write an application..” I have an answer for this one, well, the English book doesn’t have a well framed grammar book for class twelve and other classes as well. And students prepare for grammar looking at the type of questions asked the previous years, but every year students see new patterns of questions asked in grammar. Students don’t know what they need to learn. And also students are never taught to write official letters other than leave applications which is also taught in lower classes only. Students are also never taught how to write references and mention the books that they used while writing assignments, which is most needed after class twelve in colleges. I personally think that lessons on how to write references and official letters should be given to class twelve students. 

I hope I didn’t bore you writing all these to you. If you hadn’t known about these, I have told you, now that you are aware of it, I will be waiting for a change to come but if you had known all the matter mentioned above, you are just another chair warmer and a chicken in power. I bet on that one.

Have a great day!