Dechen Dolkar 

Students of classes 11 and 12 in Samtengang Central School are left without an accountancy teacher after their midterm break.

There are 71 students in the commerce stream including 38 students in Class XII. The school was upgraded to a higher secondary school in 2020.

One commerce teacher was teaching the accountancy subject till midterm this year.

Kuensel learnt that after the midterm the commerce students were left idle without the teacher during the accountancy period.

After the midterm break, a teacher who was teaching accountancy could not continue since the teacher has to teach commerce, business entrepreneurs and accountancy subjects in class XI and XII.

Last year, the result of class XII in accountancy for the school was very poor. It was learnt that out of 30 students in the school only one could pass the board exam in accountancy.

Last week, the class XII commerce students submitted a letter to the school administration requesting an accountancy teacher signed by 28 students.

The letter states that since they don’t have an accountancy teacher, they are lagging behind in the subject and worried that they may not be able to cover the syllabus on time.

Principal Ganga Ram Gurung said that they have forwarded the letter to the dzongkhag. They have requested accountancy teachers from the beginning of the year to the dzongkhag and to the ministry as well.

The principal said that they were told that there is a shortage of accountancy teachers at the national level.

The principal said that one commerce teacher has been teaching commerce, business entrepreneurship and accountancy subjects to the students till the midterm.    

“We also have a teacher shortage in geography and English subjects but the school is managing with the existing teachers,” the Principal said.

The teacher, Pema Lhamo, who was teaching the accountancy subject, said that she was allocated five subjects which was too much for her.

She also claimed that she has to teach the same class four to five times a day, which will be monotonous for the students.

She said that she used to teach commerce for class XII repeaters after school.

“I would get only one to two free periods in a day which is not enough to prepare a lesson plan. I reach home by 7.30pm and it is very tiring for me,” she said.

She said that after the midterm, she withdrew from teaching the accountancy subject since she also has to run the business entrepreneur club.

The school opened a printing press for business entrepreneurs that was funded by the labour ministry.

She said that she cannot focus on accountancy, which requires more lesson plan preparation. “I don’t want to compromise the quality of education for the students.”

She also said that her expertise is in commerce and not in accountancy.

She claims that some activities are given to students during the accountancy period.

She also said that she could cover only four chapters in accountancy before the mid-term exams.

The deputy chief dzongkhag education officer (DEO), of Wangduphodrang, Karma Tshering, said that the dzongkhag is recruiting substitute teachers and selected teachers will be placed by mid of this month in the schools.

He said that the dzongkhag will be recruiting 11 substitute teachers and placing them in different schools in the dzongkhag.

“Still the dzongkhag has a teacher shortage of 15 as per the assessments,” deputy chief DEO said.

The deputy chief DEO said that however, the Samtengang central school has excess teachers if they go by teacher-student ratio. “The only shortage is in accountancy subject.”

The teachers are required to teach a minimum of 18 hours a week.