In The Beginning
We might wonder why we are here and just
what is going on.
It is
always good to be reminded of the purpose of education.
I guess the start of the school year
anywhere involves a lot of sorting, dividing, allocating, volunteering and being
volunteered.
Samtengang Primary School is no different.
Firstly a variety of captains must be
chosen including boy and girl school captains, house captains, mess captain,
time captain, prayer captain a health captain and possibly other captains too.
Sometimes it is a little hard to
differentiate between democratic process and mob rule!
Students
here are voting for one of the captains. The hand count was estimated and often
the loudest response indicated the winner!
Students must be divided into classes and
houses and textbooks distributed.
Neither
do the students choose their houses, nor the houses choose the students.
Madam
chooses!
The
piles of new and used textbooks piled up in an orderly fashion prior to
distribution to the students on a class wise and subject wise basis.
Woo
hoo, some NEW textbooks from Sir’s store.
At the same time those students who depend
on the World Food Program for their school meals must be looked after.
It’s
a tough job for the cooks to provide healthy and nutritious meals for the
students on a regular basis given the dearth of anything resembling fresh food
available here in Samtengang right now. This breakfast looked pretty good
however, rice and chickpeas with ‘ezzay,’ spicy Bhutanese salad.
I
guess when we are in full swing, students will take over the responsibility of
serving up. Right now, one of the cooks makes sure everyone gets their fair
share. The meal is accompanied by a full cup of piping hot water.
And
is eaten and enjoyed with friends in the adjacent dining room.
This early part of the year coincides with
the celebration of His Majesty the King’s birthday so cultural performance
rehearsals are in full swing around the country.
Our
School Captain and standard bearer leading the primary school students in the
March Past practice at the nearby Middle Secondary School. Not wanting to be
outdone by their bigger brothers and sisters, the primary students performed
admirably.
Left,
left, left -right-left. Cultural in Charge, Ms Dorji is setting a fine example
here.
That
is us, classes 4, 5 and 6 from Samtengang Primary School.
Beautiful pictures!
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