Education, Labour checklists: Performance Compacts
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| Education and labour ministers submit their pledges to Lyonchhoen |
Performance Compacts 18 February, 2010 – The education and labour ministries signed performance compacts with the prime minister yesterday on 17 key initiatives to be undertaken by 2013, which will bind them to their targets.
The education ministry committed to raise the percentage of teachers satisfied with the profession from 24 in 2009 to 70 percent in 2013 through changes in compensation, career tracks and promotion systems.
With the initiative geared towards a Bhutanese learning system focused on GNH principles, education minister, Lyonpo Thakur S Powdyel, said the morale, motivation and commitment level of teachers would increase. “In time, our teachers will see the big reason for being in education and find fulfillment in what they’re doing,” he said.
The ministry also committed to create innovative technology-based teacher support mechanisms, especially for remote locations as one of the 10 key commitments the ministry signed yesterday.
Education officials said they would develop an e-portal forum for teachers to discuss best practices, module lessons and various other topics on the internet. Plans are also set for a call centre for remote teachers to enhance communication with other officials in the ministry.
Education ministry will ensure that teacher supply effectively meets teacher demand by 2013. Bhutan, today, faces a teacher crunch of about 1,000. The ministry has committed to achieve 100 percent net enrolment for primary education and 75 percent for secondary education by the end of the 10th Plan.
The minister said: “We’re committing the whole machinery of the education ministry to be more vigorously and seriously engaged in the service of the children and people of the country.”
Meanwhile, the labour ministry has committed to increase the annual number of vocational education and training (VET) graduates from 500 in 2009 to 6,000 by 2013. That is almost 30 percent of class X and XII students, who appear the board examination annually.
Labour minister, Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi, said they signed seven initiatives relating to creating a skilled workforce through vocational education and training. He said that, in the next five years, the ministry would need to provide jobs to about 75,000 youth. Of which, the government has mandated, through this compact, that about 50,000 jobs should be provided through VET.
To attract students to pursue VET, the institutes will offer viable courses to meet employers’ demands, introduce curriculum on competency-based training and increase the VET’s attractiveness. “We’ll do that by putting a minimum wage rate policy and offering opportunities to pursue diploma and degree courses after VET,” Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi said.
The ministry will also reduce the government funding for each student to Nu 85,000 a year from existing Nu 92,000.
The ministry will also increase the employability of these technical graduates from 50 to 80 percent by 2013. “With curriculum and training delivery system of vocational training institutes undergoing several transformation, we’ll achieve the targets,” Lyonpo Dorji Wangdi said.
The first performance compacts were signed between the prime minister, information and communication ministry, health ministry and tourism council of Bhutan in December 2009.
The education and labour ministers said that this compact required them to make a commitment to deliver the target to both the prime minister and the people of the country. “The performance compact is a new accountability system and we’re fully aware of what we’re committing to,” the labour minister said.
Source: kuenselonline