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23 July, 2009 - A month after the royal education council (REC) was transferred to the government following a royal command, its new council members, with prime minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley as the chairperson, met for the first time yesterday to understand and assess its work so far.

“We’re simply listening to the managers of the various REC projects for us to assess the work they’ve done and decide how we should proceed from here on,” said Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley at the REC office in Thimphu, where officials presented and explained six REC projects to Council members. “Since REC was a secretariat and not a council, this is the first REC meeting.”

REC was established in August 2007 to initiate and implement education reforms across the entire spectrum, covering school, technical and tertiary education. Besides piloting and initiating teaching programs in primary schools, such as the X-seed program, REC also conducted several research studies and field visits. The council initiated the teacher’s need assessment in primary schools in February this year.

“There are, no doubts, that there’s a certain amount of work duplications between REC and the education ministry,” said Lyonchhoen. “We’ll delineate and define the areas and boundaries within which the two would operate.”

Lyonchhoen told Kuensel that REC would be a part of the education system but, at the same time, the government would ensure that the body is able to function independently and autonomously to do reviews, research, analysis and give recommendations to the education ministry objectively.

“His Majesty made it very clear to me that, in having established REC, it was his desire that this body played a critical role in improving and ensuring the quality and relevance of our education system - both in terms of content, curriculum and progress,” he said. “The council will discuss how this is to be achieved and what REC’s role should be.”

Earlier this year, Lyonchhoen and Lyonpo Thakur had said that REC should be an educational think tank to carry out research, case studies and investigations on various aspects of education and to provide study findings or recommendations to the ministry. They said that the country, given its resource constraints, could not afford to have parallel curricula, different recruitment systems for teachers and assessment standards.

For 2009-10, the government has kept Nu 132.2m aside for REC, of which Nu 104.1m is for consultancy services, according to the budget report.

“We don’t know what costs have been incurred and how these are going to be paid for or have been paid for,” said Lyonchhoen, when asked about the REC’s financial implications so far. He said the money has been well spent but, because of a lack of a clear legal framework and an administrative arrangement, the finance people may have had concerns. “But there are rules and regulations that guide us in a way which we incur expenditure and we submit accounts and reports and we need to ensure that these are in line with the rules.”

REC has carried out a number of education research projects with foreign consultants and researchers.

The council members would meet the 63 officials of REC in August to come up with a set of ideas based on which it should function. “The list would be submitted to the cabinet and we’ll be sitting together to define our own mandates,” said Lyonchhoen.

Lyonchhoen said that the government is committed to creating a ‘knowledge-based society’, a society that will not only be able to adapt to the changes brought on by a globalised world but also a society, which would thrive on human potential and ideas to initiate changes.