On grounds that all lesson plans, for which his promotion was withheld, were not submitted to authorities 

 Update:The former teacher of Ura middle secondary school (UMSS), Karma Tenzin will appeal to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and education ministry, after he found out that only 36 of the total 66 lesson plans submitted to the investigation team reached the ministry and the commission.

Karma Tenzin claims to have submitted 66 copies of lesson plans, consisting four different books, in December to UMSS vice principal.  But only 36 reached the MoE and ACC.

A book containing 30 lesson plans was found lying in the vice principal’s office last month.

“I found it when the students were shifting the office to the new academic block,” Karma Tenzin said, adding he then took them to keep with him.

The ministry and dzongkhag withheld Karma Tenzin’s promotion for next four years based on the “poor number of lesson plans”.  He was transferred to Zhemgang.

UMSS former staff secretary, Tshewang Needup, validated Karma Tenzin’s claims of submitting 66 lesson plans during the rating of performance evaluation (PE) in October 2014.

“He submitted 36 detailed and 30 short notes in October,” Tshewang Needup said, adding that Karma Tenzin had 104 lesson plans by the end of the academic year.

The staff secretary, however was not sure how many were submitted to the vice principal in December.

UMSS vice principal, Samten, denied leaving out any of the notebooks from Karma Tenzin.

“Everything he gave me that day was wrapped up immediately in a polythene bag and submitted to the dzongkhag the same day,” Samten said. “I wouldn’t leave it even by accident. As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t submit the complete lesson plans.”

The vice principal said, when the remarks on the lesson plans were not found during the reinvestigation in the dzongkhag, it was presumed that the teacher had torn them off to hide the negative remarks.

“If the notebook really was lying in my old office, why did he not inform me before collecting it from my office?” the vice principal asked.

The dzongkhag had no comments on the missing lesson plans, reasoning that actions have been taken based on the ministry’s guidelines.

Karma Tenzin said he would also appeal to the ministry and ACC on unfair PE rating.  He alleged the principal of rating unfairly, after the dzongkhag revealed his identity for lodging a complaint to ACC against the head of the school.

“I was rated unfairly because, even teachers who failed to produce a single lesson plan for the midterm, were rated above 3.8 out of four,” Karma Tenzin said.

The vice principal, however, attributed Karma Tenzin’s lower rating to producing only 36 detailed lesson plans and 30 short notes.  He said, besides, the teacher had other derelictions.

“More than the output, Karma Tenzin lagged in agreed core competencies, like integrity, punctuality and attitude, which have direct relation with one’s immediate loss in rating,” Samten said.

Otherwise, both Samten and Tshewang Needup felt that the rating was done fairly, as far as the policy is concerned.

Former UMSS principal, Tshering Nima, said that Karma Tenzin agreed to the rating during the performance evaluation.

“Whatever the teacher has been marked with was done only upon his agreement,” Tshering Nima said, adding the teacher never objected when the rating was done.

By Tempa Wangdi, Ura