To teach Bhutan History in Dzongkha or not
Should Bhutan history be taught in the national language, Dzongkha? The debate continues outside the National Council, where the issue was first discussed and the House said Bhutan history should be taught in Dzongkha.
The issue is yet to reach the lower house, the National Assembly, but the education ministry said history, along with four other subjects, will be taught in English. He used social media to convey that.
Bhutan Today talked to teachers, students and observers and there is mixed reactions.
“I have in the past few years constantly argued that Bhutan history should be taught in Dzongkha for academic development of young people, self esteem and identity of a nation, the standard of history, cultural heritage and national language,” the President of the Loden Foundation, director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and author of The History of Bhutan, Dr. Karma Phuntsho, posted on Facebook.
He argued that one of the main reasons for studying history is to understand the origin, historical evolution and contexts and the thoughts of people, and thereby to sustain a strong national identity and pride of sovereignty.
He questioned his Facebook friends, saying that studying one’s own history in a foreign language is a sign of terrible state of a nation’s intelligentsia, tradition, education, national identity and self esteem.
A teacher, Singay Wangchuk, who is teaching history at the Institute of Language and culture studies (ILCS), said that teaching Bhutan history in Dzongkha is more appropriate. “We can communicate well and students will understand it better,” he said. “Using a foreign language will confuse students and not help them in understanding it because English does not have vocabulary to render some local Bhutanese terminology, which will cause a lot of difficulties in learning.”
As per research, the education ministry translated Class 7 Bhutan History textbook from English to Dzongkha so that it could be taught to the students from the 2006 academic session. The year after that, it did the same with the Class 8 history textbook. The rationale was to promote and improve the national language and raise it to the level of English.
In education system of Bhutan, most of the subjects are taught in foreign language. Learning our own history in our own language is not a difficult task to learn. A student, Sonam Wangchuk, 16, said, “It is better to learn Bhutan history in our language because we it is mother tongue. “Otherwise, it would be just for the sake of passing through an exam.” He added that learning Bhutan history in Dzongkha can help preserve and practices our language. “It is important to promote our languages, to save Bhutan’s cultural heritage.”
Another teacher, Tshering Chophel said, “It is difficult to convey and understand when taught in English.” He cited an example some of the historical stories and proverbs. He added that there is shortage of history teachers to teach the subject at the moment but after few years, the condition would change. “The most important thing is we need to start it now if not, it will be late to teach history in Dzongkha.” He said.
Another teacher, Dorji (name changed on request) said that education system of the past was much better than the present. Now in the challenging time of globalization Dzongkha is made even less valuable compared to English that helped in other foreign affairs. “Even the parliamentarians, some of them have a tough time to express in Dzongkha because with Dzongkha they have less vocabulary and often spoken in Dzonglish.” He said.
However, there are others who think that teaching the subject in Dzongkha would be a big mistake. “Look at the standard of Dzongkha today,” said a student. “Many find it difficult to pass Dzongkha.”
Another said that Dzongkha is a difficult and confusing language. “It would be a disaster to start introducing subjects in Dzongkha when students are finding it difficult to chew the one subject, Dzongkha,” he said. His friend added that promotion of the language and culture could be done in many ways and not necessarily by introducing subjects in Dzongkha.
Students are also of the view that Bhutanese teachers, especially those trained in English, were not confident teaching history in Dzongkha.
Should Bhutan history be taught in the national language, Dzongkha? The debate continues outside the National Council, where the issue was first discussed and the House said Bhutan history should be taught in Dzongkha.
The issue is yet to reach the lower house, the National Assembly, but the education ministry said history, along with four other subjects, will be taught in English. He used social media to convey that.
Bhutan Today talked to teachers, students and observers and there is mixed reactions.
“I have in the past few years constantly argued that Bhutan history should be taught in Dzongkha for academic development of young people, self esteem and identity of a nation, the standard of history, cultural heritage and national language,” the President of the Loden Foundation, director of Shejun Agency for Bhutan’s Cultural Documentation and author of The History of Bhutan, Dr. Karma Phuntsho, posted on Facebook.
He argued that one of the main reasons for studying history is to understand the origin, historical evolution and contexts and the thoughts of people, and thereby to sustain a strong national identity and pride of sovereignty.
He questioned his Facebook friends, saying that studying one’s own history in a foreign language is a sign of terrible state of a nation’s intelligentsia, tradition, education, national identity and self esteem.
A teacher, Singay Wangchuk, who is teaching history at the Institute of Language and culture studies (ILCS), said that teaching Bhutan history in Dzongkha is more appropriate. “We can communicate well and students will understand it better,” he said. “Using a foreign language will confuse students and not help them in understanding it because English does not have vocabulary to render some local Bhutanese terminology, which will cause a lot of difficulties in learning.”
As per research, the education ministry translated Class 7 Bhutan History textbook from English to Dzongkha so that it could be taught to the students from the 2006 academic session. The year after that, it did the same with the Class 8 history textbook. The rationale was to promote and improve the national language and raise it to the level of English.
In education system of Bhutan, most of the subjects are taught in foreign language. Learning our own history in our own language is not a difficult task to learn. A student, Sonam Wangchuk, 16, said, “It is better to learn Bhutan history in our language because we it is mother tongue. “Otherwise, it would be just for the sake of passing through an exam.” He added that learning Bhutan history in Dzongkha can help preserve and practices our language. “It is important to promote our languages, to save Bhutan’s cultural heritage.”
Another teacher, Tshering Chophel said, “It is difficult to convey and understand when taught in English.” He cited an example some of the historical stories and proverbs. He added that there is shortage of history teachers to teach the subject at the moment but after few years, the condition would change. “The most important thing is we need to start it now if not, it will be late to teach history in Dzongkha.” He said.
Another teacher, Dorji (name changed on request) said that education system of the past was much better than the present. Now in the challenging time of globalization Dzongkha is made even less valuable compared to English that helped in other foreign affairs. “Even the parliamentarians, some of them have a tough time to express in Dzongkha because with Dzongkha they have less vocabulary and often spoken in Dzonglish.” He said.
However, there are others who think that teaching the subject in Dzongkha would be a big mistake. “Look at the standard of Dzongkha today,” said a student. “Many find it difficult to pass Dzongkha.”
Another said that Dzongkha is a difficult and confusing language. “It would be a disaster to start introducing subjects in Dzongkha when students are finding it difficult to chew the one subject, Dzongkha,” he said. His friend added that promotion of the language and culture could be done in many ways and not necessarily by introducing subjects in Dzongkha.
Students are also of the view that Bhutanese teachers, especially those trained in English, were not confident teaching history in Dzongkha.
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