February 18: Teacher shortage is a problem in Bhutan but the problem is more serious for schools in remote areas. This is because not many teachers prefer to teach in the remote areas due to lack of road, electricity, and teaching facilities. To address this problem, the Education Ministry has formed a committee to identify suitable strategies to motivate and retain teachers in remote areas.

The Education Ministry says teachers are reluctant to teach in remote schools because there are no modern amenities or incentives. The Ministry has now set up a committee to help curb the teacher shortage in remote areas. The committee is working on proposals to request the government not to fix a ceiling on the difficulty allowance. 

The committee is also working to upgrade the entry level of teachers as per the position classification to encourage more people to join the teaching profession. The committee is also looking at increasing the age of superannuation to retain the teachers.

While schools in remote areas are suffering from teacher shortage, schools in urban areas have excess teachers. That’s because most teachers prefer to teach in urban areas and somehow they manage to remain in urban areas. Some teachers have been teaching in urban areas for years. Thimphu has over 30 extra teachers.

The Chief Human Resource Officer said the Ministry is in the process of negotiating to transfer these teachers to remote schools. Transfer of teachers is granted only on marital and medical grounds. Teachers are also transferred to urban schools after having served in remote schools for a long duration.

There are currently over 6,000 teachers with over 100,000 students in the country.