Sherig Century: Reminder of the greater role of education

On 2 May this year, the nation launched and celebrated ‘Sherig Century’ across the country. This is indeed an indication of support that the education as an inevitable sector has from the government and the people. Hundred years ago, the modern education had just begun, but since then the education system has been improving consistently to come to its present stage. Thus, the celebration of the Sherig Century not only gives an opportunity to look back, all together, into those foundational days and rejoice moments with satisfaction, but also gives to anticipate the future visions at the same time.

Today, the nation has its own university; the Royal University of Bhutan was instituted in June 2003. There are community primary schools reaching every corner of the country and almost enough High schools for our youth. The literacy rate of the nation has increased by many folds. This means that education in Bhutan has come long way. Going by this standard of development, it is only agreeable that our own education system can contribute towards national development through the production and distribution of knowledge. Undeniably, the mandate and the objective of the Royal University of Bhutan, the highest learning institution, is also to: develop and provide programmes of study at tertiary education level, of relevance and good quality which will fulfill the needs of the country for an educated and skilled population, and to promote and conduct research, to contribute to the creation of knowledge in an international context and to promote the transfer of knowledge of relevance to Bhutan. Thus, these lines explicitly define our university and the educational goal.

As the nation continues to celebrate its year-long Sherig Century, Gaeddu College of Business Studies has taken initiative, just in right time, to commemorate the occasion on its own small way. The Inter College Debate Competition held on 23 May at Gaeddu College has been participated by at least four nearby colleges of the university. The participants from the participating colleges debated on current issues of ‘Rupee shortage’ and the ‘necessity of the corporal punishment in our education system’. While the result, winning or losing, matters least in such kind of academic activity, what really matters most is how we could engage ourselves and disseminate our knowledge to the people. Prior to this, the college also organized international conference on Gross Nation Happiness in collaboration with Lyolla College, India. This kind of reasoned public discourse is just one of the many ways a university can share information with the public.

This is how Gaeddu College came up with its intention to celebrate the occasion. This is how we as a member of institution of higher learning continue to improve and move forward. This is how a university as a whole develops.    

By Karma Yezer
Lecturer, Gaeddu College

Note: This article was already published in Gaeddu Voice-IssueII, a bi-monthly Newsletter of the college