Education: The number of vacancies for the Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) course has increased to 279 this year from 217 last year.

This year’s vacancy is also 97 more than 2014’s where only 182 B.Ed graduates of the total 417 were employed after the vacancy was slashed by more than half.

This year, the Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) has announced 175 slots for the general category, which includes B.Ed primary and secondary with subjects like history, geography and English.

The commission has also announced 50 and 35 vacancies each for Dzongkha and science B.Ed graduates respectively.

Seven of the remaining vacancies are for maths while 12 is for Information Technology.

The RCSC website also stated that the B.Ed secondary graduates, who opt to teach general and science in the primary and lower secondary levels, shall be reflected as general primary and science teachers respectively.

But with around 389 B.Ed graduates from the Paro College of Education and Samtse College of Education, at least 110 are expected to have to look for teaching jobs outside the civil service. Two hundred and fifty seven trainees have just graduated from the Paro College of Education and 132 from the Samtse College of Education.

And around 321 B.Ed primary and secondary graduates have to vie for 175 vacancies, which includes for subjects like history, geography and English.

Though the commission did not reflect whether the B.Ed graduates would be recruited on contract, it stated that the education ministry would announce a decision after the recruitment of regulars to the civil service. “Recruitment under contract shall be conducted by the Ministry of Education after the recruitment of the above vacancies,” the commission stated.

Meanwhile, the National Council, in its 17th session raised concerns about RCSC reducing the number of vacancies despite the education minister Norbu Wangchuk admitting a teacher requirement of 1,500.

Lyonpo Norbu Wangchuk said that there is a shortage of 1,500 teachers while responding to the National Council’s questions during its 17th session.

As per statistics from the two colleges, there are around 1,080 teacher trainees in the two colleges as of now. Of these 1,080 trainees, 861 are primary B.Ed trainees and 219 B.Ed secondary trainees undergoing the teacher training.

Last year, a total of 507 B.Ed graduates were recruited on contract and regular.

As per the ministry, over 610 teachers were recruited in 2016 including 103 post-graduate diploma in education.

Tempa Wangdi