GOSALING PRIMARY SCHOOL

GOSALING PRIMARY SCHOOL

SCHOOL BACK GROUND

Gosaling Primary School is an off-road school located 11 kilometers away from the present Damphu town on the way to Changchey Bazaar; the present school was known as “Lobsabotey” derived from a wild fruit tree locally known as Lobsey. People of the locality use the fruit of the tree to prepare pickle. Usually this is done by the southern Bhutanese women and still one can see pickle bottles lined up on the roof on a hot day usually in southern Bhutan. Later the place was named Gosaling in Dzongkha meaning want of land in abundant.

Initially the present school was established as a Public Clinic Centre by Royal Government of Bhutan. The construction of the building begun in 1955 and took only a year to complete it. However a public dispensary was already there at Changchey Bazaar, 2 kilometers away from the present school which was known to be one of the biggest towns ever existed in Tsirang Dzongkhag. Some even say that the town used to be one of the most famous and largest ever developed towns of Bhutan. People from most of the country side came to trade at Changchey Bazaar. But today the town is on the brink of ruin and people hardly visit the Bazaar. Thus the new location rather remained as residence for government officials for about four years from 1957 till 1960

It was only after four long years of its construction in 1960, the old dispensary was shifted to the present new location; Lobsebotey. The dispensary served the public for about a decade from 1960 till 1969, but when another new Hospital was established by the Royal Government, the dispensary again was shifted to place where present Damphu General Hospital exists leaving behind the present building empty. But the building was never left unused, and was immediately made into a private school in the same year; 1969.

Around 150 private candidates from the locality were enrolled in the school paying Nu.3 per month per learner to the teacher. There were no particular syllabuses and Learners were taught informal curriculum developed by the teacher himself. Whatever the teacher taught became the day’s objective for both the learners and the tutee. Regarding the tutees payment, one may see it as a low waged service but Mr Jangabir Limbu, satisfied and the payment was more than enough to feed their family.

Mr. Jangabir Limbu alone taught 150 beneficiaries who was supposed to be the first private teacher of the school. He alone served the public about four years from 1969 till 1972 and followed by Mr. Kharay Nepal who served a year from 1972 to 1973. K. B Nepal was the third and the last private teacher who served the school from 1974 to 1979. During his tenure, Home Minister along with Finance Minister was supposed to have visited the private school and he appealed the ministers to make his payment by the government, but unluckily, the government could not respond to his voice. Yet curriculum syllabi were to be supplied by the government while his monthly salary was to be paid by the candidates themselves.

In 1979 the government begun to construct the present academic building and was completed in 1980.Thus the school was completely taken over by the Royal Government of Bhutan, but K B Nepal continued to teach in the government school for another one year. It was only in the year 1981 that Mr. M B Mongar, the first ever Headmaster of the school took over the school who served till 1983. Mr. R P Sharma was the second Headmaster of the school who served from 1984 till 1988 followed by Mr Tshering Tobgyal(1988-1990) who served as a last Headmaster before the school was officially closed due to Southern Up-rising Problems in 1990.

It was only in the year 2006 with repeated appeal to the Dzongkhag and Education Ministry, the school was reopened on 11th March 2006. The school was inaugurated by Dasho Dzongda Mr. Lhundup Wangchuk along with the new principal Mr Pema Gyalpo with first batch of 38 children enrolled in Pre Primary class. The new principal who was transferred from Mendelgang LSS, Tsirang Dzongkhag, took the responsibilities in management with an Apprentice Teacher, who later joined the school by mid APril, 2006.

By 2007 number of teacher remained constant despite recruiting another new teacher because apprentice teacher left the school to join the Paro College of Education. Thus one principal and a teacher run the school for another one year. Now the problem of shortage of Dzongkha teacher was another important issue for the administrator. Based on the requisition made by the school, a new general teacher, Mr Betru, joined the school in 2008, but shortage of Dzongkha teacher was still a problem. However a Dzongkha teacher was deployed by the Dzongkhag by 2009 along with a lady contract teacher totaling to five teachers for four sections in the school by 2009; and of course another general teacher was deployed in the year 2010.

With the arrival of three other teachers Mr. Kado, Ms. Sonam Yangchen and Mr. Pelden Dorji in 2011 made the total strength to eight teachers. Thereafter in 2012, two other teachers Mr. Nima Wangdi and Mr. Karma Wangchuk joined the school and comforted the school with ten in number. In the mid of the year, Mr Pema Gyalpo, our previous Principal left for Masters in India under GOI. However, today the school is running by Mr Ugyen Palden (new principal) and seven other teachers in seven sections. The classes’ ranges from pre primary till six standard. The school is full fledged primary school.

The school has total of five old buildings including principal quarter and teacher quarters within the three and half acres of land area. The school has though enough area, but not very suitable for school in general. This is because the school stands amidst two dangerous gorges very prone to soil erosion. Towards the south, the land is damp and marshy while towards the north the land is sloppy.    Play field is another big issue in the school.

We have at present two buildings used for the academic session and office and staff room attached to a multipurpose hall. The school has a severe staff quarter problem since the only old two unit teacher quarters and a principal’s quarter makes the dwelling for only three teachers including the school principal and a temporary shed for the care taker. Other two teachers drives all the way from Damphu HSS to the school and two teachers still they walk around thirty minutes from the road to reach the school. Especially the summer season has become toughest time for those teachers who walk through the damp, muddy and slippery foot path. The school is thus categorized into a remote school but history doesn’t talks about difficulty allowance for the teaching staff serving in the school.

After the completion of new construction the school is supposed to be shifted to Pemathang in the academic year 2014. As planned the classes from III-VI got shifted to Pemathang primary school and PP to II were left back. The Principal including most of the teachers left to new school but Mr. Pelden Dorji and Mr. Yeshi Zangpo (Teacher In-charge) continued the school in 2014. As requested by public the dzongkhag education office requested principal for the 2015. Mr. Tek Bahadur Kharka(Principal) joined the school on 10th February 2015 and school had all seven sections with the school enrolment of 116 students. The teachers status increased to eight including principal, two contract teacher and one Dzongkha language teacher. However, the year 2015 was challenging to restore the furniture and stationeries to start the academic session. The condition of infrastructure and other facilities remain as it is, since there is nothing proposed in 11th five year plan for Gosaling. To impart quality education the principal played active role with the set of hard working teachers to provide basic facilities like lightings, creation of library room, continuous flow of drinking water, library books and maintenance of risky buildings too. The dzongkhag is kind enough to support the maintenance of principal quarter and school water supply in 2015. The parents are also collaborating with the school in plantation of cardamom, clearing school areas, repairing the buildings but the leakage  water in all the classes never stopped as the building itself are old enough, where most of the doors and windows are beyond repair.

Vision

An educated and enlightened society of GNH, built and sustained on the unique Bhutanese values of tha dam-tshig ley gyu-drey.

Mission

“Provision of education through acquisition of life long skills”

  • Different activities that involve physical, mental, social, intellectual, value education programs, etc.
  • Teachers striving to develop professionally.
  • Implementation of the curriculum effectively and creation of conducive learning environment.

Goals                   

 We aim to;

  • Enable students to develop physically, mentally, socially and emotionally.
  • Have comfort in learning.
  • Enhance teaching learning strategies.
  • Run the school collaboratively.
  •  Provide quality education.
  • Up-grade profession… 

OBJECTIVES

School to:

  • Conduct competitions for variety of activities amongst the children.
  • Have sufficient sanitation facilities.
  • Acquire sufficient infra-structure.
  • Plant as many ornamental plants.
  • Carry out SMLSS effectively.
  • Observe all kinds of National Events.
  • Preserve all kinds of National Interests.
  • Conduct all types of school base programs.
  • Participate in various level varied competitions.
  • Devote maximum school time for Teaching-Learning programs.
  • Conduct fair and appropriate assessment at all levels.
  • Observe proper code of conduct between teacher and students.
  • Maintain good teacher-students relationship.
  • Promote maximum children to reduce repeater rate by providing Quality Education and remedial helps

Motto: “BUILDING FOUNDATION”