Chhimi Dema

The e-Library portal was formally handed over by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to the education ministry yesterday.

Ministry’s officiating secretary Karma Tshering said that the e-Library project marks a milestone in the Bhutan-India friendship.

The success of the portal was because of the tremendous effort of the C-DAC team and education ministry, he said.

The e-Library provides educational content in forms of e-books, audio, videos and images.  The portal is established in 49 schools and 12 colleges across the country.

Karma Tshering said that the ministry would hereafter focus on content development. He said that apart from technicians managing the website, there should also be people managing the curriculum aspect of the portal.

“We have a great opportunity to use teachers to develop content aligning with the curriculum that we are delivering now in schools.”

To develop the portal’s human resource capacity additional staff would be recruited and trained. “The benefits from the portal may not come immediately, but it is certain there would be benefits in the long run.”

The project was supposed to be handed over last December.

Officials from the ministry said that the project’s handing-taking was delayed since the education ministry was not confident to take it over.