Education: The education ministry has once again issued a notification to thromdes and dzongkhags asking the local governments to stop sending parents and children to the ministry for class XI admissions particularly for schools in Thimphu thromde.

While the ministry has received only seven transfer cases for class XI so far, the number usually skyrockets between January and February. Annually over a thousand applicants seek class XI admission at the ministry between January and February despite the process being decentralised to the thromdes and dzongkhags.

Department of School Education deputy chief programme officer Yeshey Lhendup said that the ministry will no longer entertain class XI transfer applications. “Thromdes and dzongkhags should resolve these transfer cases as per the central school operational guidelines and school admission guidelines,” he said.

The ministry in the notification writes that admission requests for various reasons are still referred to the department despite repeated reminders to the thromdes and dzongkhags to stop forwarding transfer cases. The ministry states that the thromde and dzongkhag education offices resolve the transfer cases of dependents and those based on medical grounds as per the school admission guidelines and central school operational guidelines.

Yeshey Lhendup said that the parents and students come to the department with a misconception that if they can get an approval letter from the ministry their transfer application will be accepted. He pointed out that the ministry will never issue such a recommendation.

All that the ministry can do is send back the applicants with a recommendation to consider the application as per the availability of vacancies in the respective schools. “Even if they come to the ministry, we do not guarantee the admission,” Yeshey Lhendup said.

This is the third time the ministry is writing to the dzongkhags about the issue after two notices were issued in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

While the ministry is expecting the number of dependents from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to decrease with the opening of Central Schools, the number of applicants for transfer under this reason is still high.

Thromde education officer Sangay Dukpa said that people go to the ministry on their own since class XI admission was earlier processed by the ministry. The thromde starts receiving transfer applications only after the declaration of class X results.

Tempa Wangdi