Tibetan Education Policy and the
Centre for Teacher Education Bhuntar

A large gift of money enabled the Tibetfreunde society to finance a study year in 2014 for 20 student teachers at the Centre for Teacher Education (CTE) Bhuntar at a cost of CHF 18,000. It’s a good moment to illustrate CTE and its work.

The Department of Education, Tibetan Government in Exile founded the Centre for Teacher Education in 2012. Bhuntar is about 90Km southeast of Dharamsala. To understand CTE’s significance it’s helpful to consider the education policy of the Tibetan Government in Exile

The Background to Education Policy

The Tibetan Government in Exile formulated comprehensive guidelines and aims for education in 1997 and the Kashag (the executive of the Government in Exile) set these guidelines into practice from 2005

The aim of Tibetan education policy is to uphold Tibetan culture and tradition and equally to work for a mindset of universal responsibility in order to attain a compassionate society free of violence

Each individual therefore should advance in the development and indwelling of four qualities: freedom, selflessness, the maintenance and yet the renewal of tradition

Traditional instruction rooted in Tibetan culture and religion stands at the centre of education policy. Modern material of scientific basis is no less essential to the aims of policy. Policy is now aimed at promoting science powerfully in Tibetan education

The training of teachers ist of highest priority because they are the are the most important people, except for children, in society. The future of society depends on the quality of education

Teacher Training in Bhuntar

Policy aims to build a firm foundation of society through education, with the effect first that more teachers are needed, and secondly that more teachers trained in the guidelines of 1997/2005 are needed

The Education Department had until CTE two teacher training colleges. The College of Higher Tibetan Studies and the TCV Teachers Training Centre are oriented towards training teachers of Tibetan language for elementary and middle school. More teachers for subjects like mathematics, social science, and science and natural history at higher than elementary level are needed now

CTE has from the start offered a four-year BA and BSc which may each be supplemented with a one-year BEd. A student advancing successfully for five years may attain BSc BEd or BA BEd. The Bachelor of Education must be preceded with a Bachelors or a Masters degree and constitutes teacher training for 6th to 10th Classes. Few other teacher training institutions in India offer similar combinations of study

Teachers already practising can attend seminars at CTE for further professional training like new teaching methods and for issues like education policy itself

CTE presently has 91 students of whom 57 are women and 34 are men

CTE is responsible to the Department of Education and is administered by the Tibetan Children Education and Welfare Fund. It it forms part of the Central University of Tibetan Studies in Varanasi. See also www.ctebhuntar.org