Curriculum Matters

Piloting the Akelius language initiative for children with disabilities, UNICEF handed over 21 tablets, 21 headphones, 1 router, 1 multi-charging device, 120 analogue books to Changangkha MSS on August 20.

Akelius Language Initiative emphasises on enhancing English Language skills among children to improve the quality of foundational learning in Bhutan. Akelius Language initiative was first pilot-tested in monastic schools, where child monks and nuns learn English using the Akelius app. After a successful first phase, the initiative is now being piloted in secular schools targeting remote locations and schools with SEN programmes, while also expanding in monastic schools.

Besides Changangkha MSS, Goenshari PS, Tash*thang MSS, Rinchenling PS, Zinchella PS, and Gatsa PS were also supplied with tablets and other resources required for the implementation of Akelius English Language Initiative.

UNICEF Regional Education Advisor for South Asia Matt Brossard, along with Ms. Liudmila Lefter, the Chief of Education at UNICEF Bhutan handed over the equipment at Changangkha Middle Secondary School.

Akelius Language Initiative is being implemented in partnership with MoESD with support from UNICEF Bhutan.

AI literacy is not a single lesson—it's a foundation for lifelong learning.

Schools need to work towards integrating AI literacy meaningfully into educational practice.

Developed by the European Commission and the OECD, with Code.org and international experts, the AILit framework defines AI literacy for learners and helps educators include it in their teaching.

Read the draft and share your thoughts at ailiteracyframework.org!

𝐁𝐡𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐔 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠
𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘉𝘩𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘯
#𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐡𝐮: Achieving a significant milestone in the Digitalisation in Education initiative, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD), the European Union (EU) and UNICEF launched Bhutan’s Education Technology Framework (ETF) today. Funded by the EU with €1 million, the initiative is implemented by the MoESD in partnership with UNICEF Bhutan. It aims to enhance children’s learning experiences and skills development by providing reliable school connectivity, digital content and capacity-building programs while promoting cybersecurity awareness.
The Framework is set to transform teaching and learning across the country by setting the standards and guiding an equitable and efficient integration of technology in children’s learning from early childhood to secondary education.
The ETF responds directly to His Majesty’s Royal Decree of 2020, which emphasised the urgent need to modernise Bhutan's education system to prepare its youth for a rapidly evolving global landscape. It also aligns seamlessly with the goals set out in Bhutan’s 13th Five-Year Plan, particularly in strengthening digital infrastructure, enhancing digital literacy and fostering innovation in education.
"The launch of the ETF marks a new era for education in Bhutan," said the Minister of Education and Skills Development, Yeezang De Thapa. "This framework is our commitment to fostering a 'Nationally-rooted, inclusive and equitable digital education that empowers all learners with the knowledge, skills and values required to thrive in 21st century Bhutan and beyond. It is a strategic document to ensure that every child in Bhutan has the opportunity to excel in a technology-driven world, irrespective of their background or location."
The ETF comprises of eight inter-related policy and standards documents, designed for leaders, policymakers, administrators, and teachers and students.
"This EU-funded initiative supporting access to technology in and for education will empower 6,000 students and 400 teachers in 10 selected pilot schools. It will facilitate teaching and learning. It will help students develop technology and digital skills,” said the EU Ambassador to Bhutan, Hervé Delphin. “This funding will support Bhutan’s resolute efforts to modernise its educational system for the benefit of the current and future generations of Bhutanese youth. The EU-Bhutan partnership will continue to put the development of the human capital at its core.”
While acknowledging current infrastructure challenges and the digital divide, particularly between urban and rural areas, the Education Technology Framework provides practical and actionable guidance that is both ambitious and realistic. It aims to move Bhutan from its current "Emerging" and "Applying" stages of ICT in education towards an "Infusing" stage, where technology is seamlessly integrated across the curriculum and learning.
"The Education Technology Framework is not just a policy document. It is a commitment to our students, to our teachers and to our future,” said UNICEF Bhutan Representative, Rushnan Murtaza. "It is a blueprint for action, designed to ensure that every learner regardless of where they live or what resources their school currently has can access the digital skills they need to thrive in the 21st century."
The framework focuses on critical areas of enhancing digital literacy skills for teachers, ECCD facilitators and students, developing relevant digital content, promoting personalised and competency-based learning and ensuring cybersecurity and online safety measures.
With the launch of the ETF, work will now begin to put these standards and guidelines into action. The MoESD will initiate the development of a comprehensive training package based on ETF’s digital literacy standards for teachers, followed by capacity-building programmes to equip educators with the skills to effectively use technology in teaching and learning.
All activities related to the digital transformation of education will be aligned to the ETF at both national and Dzongkhag levels. This alignment will ensure the widespread and effective adoption of EdTech in Bhutan’s education system, thereby enhancing both pedagogical practices and student learning outcomes.

You may download this ETF from our MoESD Official Website:

https://education.gov.bt/pages/publications-by-departments/

རྫོང་ཁ་ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་མི་ མཁས་བླུན་ ག་ཨིན་རུང་། དམིགས་བསལ་ཡིག་སྦྱོར་སྐབས། བདག་གཞན་དུས་གསུམ་དང་། བྱ་བྱེད་ལས་གསུམ་གྱི་ རྣམ་གཞག་ལུ་ མ་བརྟེན་པར་ ལག་ལེན་འཐབ་མིའི་ དཀའ་ངལ་སེལ་ཐབས་ ཁོ་ན་ལུ་ དམིགས་ཏེ། མ་འོངས་ ཤེས་རིག་མཁན་གྱི་ ཡིག་ཕྲུགཔ་ཚུ། སྐད་ཡིག་གི་གཞི་མ་ བརྡ་སྦྱོར་རྣམ་གཞག་ལུ་ རྣམ་དཔྱོད་རྩལ་དུ་བཏོན་ཏེ་ ལག་ལེན་དང་། རྒྱལ་ཡོངས་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་ རང་བཞིན་ ཕུགས་བཙན་ཐབས་ཀྱི་ ཞབས་ཏོག་ཕུལཝ་ལས། དེ་ལུ་ དགའ་མགུ་ ཡི་རང་གི་ངང་ལས་ སྤྱོད་གནང་བའི་ རེ་བ་ཚད་ཀྱིས་ མི་ལང་བ་ཡོད།

Users of Dzongkha are finding difficulty in applying grammar rules to write correct spellings for the verb with a change of tenses. To clarify the misconceptions and support learners, the CSCD has developed an online support system. Get access to the system from the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1plpcsWPv2D0pE5u25gXfbM5KJv7DPtZNwgNd8z6fDWc/edit?usp=sharing (You are required to download or make a copy to use)

To make a copy online:
Step 1: Click the given link
Step 2: Sign in to your Google account
Step 3: Click ‘File’ and click ‘Make a copy’
Step 4: After the copied file is created, assign a file name. Now you can use the system.

Dzongkha Verbs & Tenses

The Centre for School Curriculum Development (CSCD) has developed a digital tool to support teachers in recording Continuous Formative Assessment (CFA) in schools. Once implemented, the tool will enable teachers to continuously monitor each student's performance, allowing for timely and targeted interventions to address individual learning needs.

Teachers can access the tool through the following link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1oy_zPSygdr3bE9Qq9zJTQYBr2LcPVs3q

Essay Competition Circular
For students of Classes IX to XII (Dzongkha and English)

As part of its Education Program, the Royal Textile Academy and the Museum Division, under the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development, Ministry of Home Affairs, are organizing an Essay Competition for students across the country during the winter vacation. The competition aims to inspire students to reflect on the impact of modernization on Bhutan’s culture and traditions, with a particular focus on preserving its textile heritage.

For further guidelines on the Essay Competition, click the pictures.

Coding Exhibitions 2024
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The Ministry of Education and Skills Development in collaboration with the Dariu Foundation (TDF) and VTOB Foundation has been implementing the Digital Literacy Initiative (DLI) to empower teachers with digital skills and promote coding and ICT literacy among students.

Currently, 38 schools are participating in the program. These schools have been provided with laptops and micro:bit, along with teacher training to enhance coding and digital skills among students. To date, 310 laptops and 160 micro have been distributed to 28 schools, and 102 teachers have been trained in Scratch Jr., Scratch Block Coding, micro:bit, and Python Turtle. More than 11,290 students have directly benefited from these initiatives.

To assess the impact of these initiatives on students, the Coding Exhibition program was conducted at two different centers: Wangdue PS in the Western region on October 12, 2024, and Trashigang MSS in the Eastern region on October 19, 2024. Prior to these final exhibitions, each school organised coding exhibitions in their respective school, from which the best projects were selected.

During the final exhibitions, each school showcased their creativity and innovation through games, animations, storytelling, quizzes, and more. The Ministry of Education and Skills Development extends our appreciation to the funding agencies and looking forward to their continued support.

𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭

Kuensel
BBS
Bhutan Today
Business Bhutan
Gyalchi Sarshog
Bhutan Times
The Bhutanese
The Journalist

"Hamster Bot Coding Exhibition"
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More than 60 primary students from Class IV to VI participated in the Hamster Bot Coding Exhibition held at Loselling Middle Secondary School, Thimphu Thromde. This marked the first coding exhibition organized for primary-level students, offering them the opportunity to apply their coding skills and sparks curiosity, ignites the imagination, and instils a lifelong passion for learning and innovation.
The children showcased their creative ideas through presentations and exhibitions on line tracing, pattern drawing, and dancing. They also participated in maze games and ball collection games to make the exhibition more engaging and exciting.

In this regard, we would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all teachers, judges and host school, Loselling MSS for you kind support in guiding children to showcase their exhibitions.

We also would like to express our appreciation to the Institute of APEC Collaborative Education and the Metropolitan Office of Education for their invaluable support in providing us with an adequate number of Hamster Bot kits and teacher training on the use of Hamster robotic kits. We look forward to the same support from stakeholders and teachers to expand this coding exhibition program to other schools.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐋

If you're building an AI system, please consider learning about AI ethics. freeCodeCamp just published our second primer on this important and potentially extinction-preventing topic. You don't need to know a lot about programming or about philosophy to enjoy this course. You'll learn about the current Black Box AI approach that many Large Language Models use and its limitations. You'll also learn about some scenarios that were previously considered to be science fiction, such as The Singularity. freeCodeCamp is proud to help inform the discourse on developing AI tools responsibly. (2 hour YouTube course):

The Ethics of AI and ML The rapid ascent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) into mainstream technology and its influence on various sectors of our society raises a series of profound ethical questions. It's not just about the technical ability of these systems but the ethical implications that could....