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NEWS SHERIGQUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CENTRAL TIBETAN ADMINISTRATION Vol.18; No.4 WINTER 2014 Ama Wäger will remain in the hearts of Dr. , in his address This page plus Tibetans highlighted the indispensable service ren-

Workshop ------3 dered by the teachers and staff of the school for the education of Tibetan children in the Teacher Training/Meeting --4 last 50 years. He also expressed his gratitude School Inspection ------5 to the Indian government and people for Counseling News ------5 their support to the Tibetan people. Scholarship News ------6 Publication News------6

About us… The Department of Education of the Cen- Sherig News is the official newsletter of the Depart- tral Tibetan Administration has expressed ment of Education, one of deep sadness at the passing away of Ama the seven departments of the Irmtraut Wäger on 2 Oct. 2014 at the age Central Tibetan Administra- of 95 in Munich. Her legacy will be remem- tion based in Dharamsala bered in the hearts of Tibetans all over the since 1960. DoE is the apex body responsible for provid- world. Education Kalon Ngodup Tsering, in his ad- ing support for the educa- She had served as chairperson of German dress spoke about the need to preserve the tional and welfare needs of Aid to Tibetans since 1983, which has led Tibetan language and called for non-govern- over 22,000 Tibetan refugee mental organizations in the area to initiate children in India and Nepal. an outstanding mission for the education and welfare of Tibetans in exile. activities to boost Tibetan language profi- For suggestions & com- ciency. ments, do contact us at: In 2006, His Holiness the Dalai Lama con- ferred her with the International Campaign He also underscored the prioritization of Department of Education for Tibet’s Light of Truth award for her education by the 14th and apprised Central Tibetan “outstanding contribution to public under- the public about the various scholarship Administration standing of Tibet and its current plight”. schemes rolled out by the Education Depart- Gangchen Kyishong ment. Dharamsala 176215 CST Kalimpong Celebrates Golden Jubilee District Kangra Education Kalon visits Tibetan Schools in Himachal Pradesh. INDIA Northeast India Email: [email protected] Tel: (01892) 222572, 222721 Fax: (01892) 223481

Advisor: Ngodup Tsering (Kalon for Education)

Topgyal Tsering (Education Secretary) Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay and Education Editor Tsering Dhondup Kalon Ngodup Tsering of the Central Tibet- (Science Education Officer) an Administration graced the golden jubilee celebration of CST Kalimpong on 8th Octo- Mailing Coordinator ber 2014. Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay was Tsering Yangkyi the chief guest while Kalon Ngodup Tsering Mr. Ngodup Tsering, Kalon for Education De- and State MLA Dr Harka Bahadur Chettri partment, Central Tibetan Administration were guests of honor on the occasion. visited a series of Tibetan schools in north- eastern India including CST Ravangla, former

SHERIG NEWS VOL. 18 No. 4 WINTER 2014 1 DEPARTMENTAL BRIEFS Thumi Sambhota School Gangtok, STS Pokhriabong, Education Kalon visits Tibetan Schools in Uttarakhand CST Darjeeling and CST Sonada. He addressed the students and the teachers in all the five schools and emphasized the importance of educa- tion, preservation of Tibetan language, upholding ethi- cal values and good health. Education Kalon expressed his special appreciation of the Indian teachers who have been teaching Tibetan students for years on and produced many great leaders such as the Sikyong, the Speaker and the Chief Justice Commissioner of CTA. He also spoke on the significance and implementation of Basic Education Policy (BEP) for Tibetans in Exile and various programs of DoE like Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and Early Grade Reading (EGR) to Education Kalon Ngodup Tsering visited Tibetan schools improve reading skill of early grade students. He has in the Northern Indian state of Uttarakhand from 25 expressed about the gratitude of His Holiness the Dalai October – 1 November. Lama to Tibetan people and 2014 is being celebrated as the year of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He visited Sambhota Tibetan School, Dekyiling, TCV Se- lakui and Sambhota Tibetan School, Paonta, from 26 He also visited ITBCI School Kalimpong, Tibetan old – 28 October and addressed the staff and students of people’s home Kalimpong, the Tibetan Settlement Of- the schools. fices, Tibetan Refugees Self-Help Centre in Darjeeling and Tibetan Co-operative Society in Sonada. He advised the students to ask more questions to the teachers so that the teachers come to the class well Petoen School paid tribute to Samdhong Rinpoche: prepared. The students were also told to set higher Education Kalon attended the function aims in their lives. He also spoke on the significance and implementation of the Basic Education Policy (BEP) for Tibetans in exile and various other programs of the Education Department like Teacher Professional Devel- opment (TPD) and Early Grade Reading (EGR) to im- prove the professional skill of teachers and the reading skill of early grade students respectively. Kalon Ngodup Tsering attended SPARKE conference or- ganized by SOIR-IM at the Songtsen Library, near Deky- iling on 29 October. In his keynote address, he talked about corporal punishment being practiced in schools and explored measures to address it. He also spoke on the universal ethics, role of teachers and students, to develop kindness and compassion in school education. Mewoen Tsuglag Petoen School, a model school es- He expressed his gratitude to SOIR-IM for its continu- tablished by the Education Department, CTA, celebrat- ous support towards the development of Tibetan com- ed the 75th birthday of former Kalon Tripa Samdong munity in India. Rinpoche on 5th Nov. 2014 as a tribute to his tireless efforts to boost Tibetan education. Kalon visited Tibetan Homes Foundation School, Mus- soorie, THF Rajpur and Tibetan Nehru Memorial Foun- Education Kalon Ngodup Tsering, chief guest at the cel- dation School, Clement Town from 30 October to 1 No- ebration, addressed the audience underlining the need vember. During his visits, he took part in various school to preserve Tibetan language and culture. activities and interacted with the staff and teachers of He explained that “the two main challenges towards these schools. language preservation are: government intervention Education Kalon attended World Hindu Congress through repressive policies, and individual apathy to- Conference wards studying the language.” Currently Tibetan lan- guage is facing both threats as Tibetans inside Tibet are Kalon for the Department of Education of the Central under a repressive Chinese policy and Tibetans in exile Tibetan Administration, Mr. Ngodup Tsering, has- at are giving less importance to the Tibetan language, he tended the World Hindu Congress Conference on 21- said and urged Tibetans to focus on Tibetan language. 23, Nov. 2014 on behalf of Sikyong Dr. Lobsang Sangay 2 SHERIG NEWS VOL. 18 No. 4 WINTER 2014 DEPARTMENTAL BRIEFS Singh; CST Miao: Bhubneshwar Prasad Baloni; CST Mussoorie: Rekha Gupta; TNMF School Clementtown: Tsering Paldon; TCV Gopalpur: Kalsang Phuntsok, Tser- ing Dolma, Tenzin Dolma and Pema Wangyal; TCV La- dakh: Wangchuk; LTCV Dharamsala: SonamWoser; TCV Kullu: Phuntsok Choedhen; TCV Entrepreneurship: Tashi Tsomo and Tseten Dorjee; UTCV Dharamsala: Tsering Dolker; TCV Bylakuppe: Madhu Pant; CST Her- bertpur: Rajendar Kumar; CST Herbertpur: A Varath- araja Perumal; CST Kalimpong: Choejor Sangmo and Tsering Yangchen; STS Puruwala: Tsering Palden; STS Pokhriabong: Tsering Wangmo Zongpa and Benny Ku- rian; CST Mundgod: SP Singh, PK Misra, G Panigrahy and PN Murty; CST Chandragiri: V Shunmugam, S May- to represent CTA. akrishnan and BM Mahadevaiah; CST Gurupura: Lekh His Holiness the Dalai Lama and India’s top leadership, Nath Humagain; NHSS Nepal: and Lok Kumar Shrestha; including ruling Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Mt. Everest School, Nepal. Shah, cabinet ministers Nitin Gadkari, Smriti Irani and WORKSHOP Nirmala Sitharaman, were also present at the inaugural Early Grade Reading Workshop-II session of the World Hindu Congress. 5th Dialectics Symposium for School Students

The Department of Education, Central Tibetan Admin- istration, has organized a workshop on ‘Early Grade Reading-II’ in Dharamshala from 3 – 6 Oct.2014. The 5th symposium on dialectics for students was held These workshops are being conducted under the Early at Upper TCV School, Dharamsala from 29th Sept. to Grade Reading Project as per the recommendations of 4th Oct. 2014.There were 110 student participants the Education Advisory Committee (EAC) meeting held escorted by 18 religious teachers. The participating in June 2013. The committee has felt the need of creat- schools were from STSS, TCV, CTSA and SLF schools. ing strong early reading program to make children self The inaugural ceremony was graced by Sikyong Dr. Lob- readers when they reach grade 3. sang Sangay and other dignitaries present were Educa- tion Kalon Mr. Ngodup Tsering, Education Secretary Mr. The project is being funded by USAID through the Tibet Topgyal Tsering and officials from TCV. During the 6 day Fund. long dialectics symposium, students debated and dis- 2th Early Grade Readings Translator’s Workshop cussed on various topics on Tibetan Language, Science, Mathematics and Social Science. The Department of Education has organized a three day workshop for the translators from 22nd to 24th Service Award for School Staff - 2014 Oct, 2014 at Nyatri Hall. The service award for the year 2014 conferred by the This workshop was the follow up of the first workshop Department of Education, CTA, to 39 school teachers held in August 2014. The whole three days were spent and staff who have completed 25 years of sincere ser- on translating some of the selected Children’s litera- vice in the schools. The recipients are as follows:- ture. Migmar, Tsering Dolma Sonam, Tsering Chozom, Ra- A total of 5 picture story books from Eklavya founda- manuj Kumar and Naga; CST Kollegal: Narsingh Thakur, tion were translated into Tibetan language under the and T. Venkateshwarlu; CST CVP Bylakuppe: Gopal mentorship of Dr. Latika Gupta, Mr. Tenzin Dhargyal, SHERIG NEWS VOL. 18 No. 4 WINTER 2014 3 DEPARTMENTAL BRIEFS mary teachers of Tibetan Schools in our effort to im- prove professional growth of teachers of young learn- ers (Class I – V). The Education Department of the Central Tibetan Ad- ministration has so far provided three such Workshops for 70 Primary school teachers. These workshops were funded by USAID through Tibet Fund. TEACHER TRAINING/MEETING Training for Spiritual and Cultural Teachers

Education Specialist, Tibet Fund and DoE Deputy Sec- retary Mr. Sonam Sangpo. These five books would be sent to printing as soon as the review committee approves the translation. The books would be very soon distributed to all Tibetan schools for their classroom reading corner. The project aims to strengthen the reading compre- hension of the children by producing more children’s story books in Tibetan Language and empowering the A group of 5 monks and a nun were given an intensive primary teachers with the art of storytelling. training course for school Spiritual and Cultural teach- The 9 translators formed their own social network ers from 4th Nov. to 18th Dec. 2014 at CHTS, Sarah. The group so that they could always keep in touch regard- main subjects covered in this training were student's ing the EGR translation works. They would be soon interest based teaching of Buddhist philosophy and di- translating more books individually for this project. The alectics, Tibetan Grammar, Child Psychology, Basic Edu- project is funded by USAID through The Tibet Fund. cation Policy(BEP), Special Education, School Adminis- The First Cluster Level Workshop on Early Grade Read- tration, Basic Computer Education and Calligraphy. ing at Bangaluru Riglam Textbook Review Meeting

The first cluster level workshop was being conducted As per the BEP curriculum framework, Riglam Textbook at the Dalai Lama Institute of Higher Education, Ban- Revision for class VI to XII was initiated from 2012. Ac- galore, in two batches for 53 primary teachers of the cordingly, a three day Riglam textbook review meeting Tibetan Schools in South India. The first Batch of 28 with its committee members along with two textbook teachers was given 5-day workshop from 21 to 25 De- editors was held from 18th to 20th November, 2014 at cember. The second batch of 25 teachers has attended CHTS, Sarah. The entire textbook from class VI to XII the workshop from 26-30 December. has been finalized and will be published in next year. The teachers were called from schools under CTSA, Social Science Textbook Review Meeting STSS and TCV. The resource person for the workshop A three day meeting was held at Nyatri hall, Gangchen was Dr. Latika Gupta from Delhi University. Kyishong from 26th to 28th Oct, 2014 to revise and A series of cluster level workshops on Early Grade finalize the draft of class III and V social science text- Reading will be provided in 2015 to cover all the pri- book. The committee members screened the contents 4 SHERIG NEWS VOL. 18 No. 4 WINTER 2014