Making dzongkha popular can deceptively be easier than having to meddle with the existing curriculum. Teaching subjects such as science, history, geography and social studies in dzongkha would not only impair learning of these subjects but dzongkhag language acquisition would also suffer. With proposals to make dzongkha the medium of instruction brewing in some quarters, it is once again time to listen to experts and learn from our experiences.
Making dzongkha a medium of instruction for other subjects would be an arm twisting tactics for our students. Almost being coercion, the strategy seems to make it a compulsion upon the students to learn dzongkha - otherwise you not only fail in dzongkha but also in other subjects. Language acquisition, experts tell us, happens when it is presented in a natural communicative settings. And not in the least when a threatening environment is constructed.
One significant reason why dzongkha is not favored by many students today in our schools is because it is not fun to learn. While in many other subjects, the teaching pedagogy has made quantum leaps in making learning a “student centered” and enjoyable engagement for both the teacher and the students, dzongkha teaching is still to catch up. Our efforts to make dzongkha learning materials more friendly and dzongkha teachers more competent has been sluggish relatively. Therefore, the language teaching is stricken with use of religion based texts and mostly traditional methods of teaching.
Teaching dzongkha doesn’t have to be at the cost of history, social studies, geography or science. Today, when, even dzongkha as a language is not learned or acquired as desired, how could it promote learning of other subjects? It would only be a case of throwing the baby with the bath water.
What is the way forward then to promote dzongkha? Making it the medium of instruction would be a reckless and an ill-informed policy decision with severe ramifications. Bhutan’s education system with english as the medium of instructions has been one of the greatest asset that we have nurtured since modern education began. Our system of education has produced remarkable results earning a global place for ourselves and awarded us with professionals who are competent at global level to make their contributions not only to Bhutan but to the world. Such contribution by our education system has reinforced our unique Bhutanese identity, perhaps much more than what the dzongkha language as medium of instruction can give for the country.
Interestingly there is tremendous scope in promoting dzongkha in the school systems. We do not have to make that drastic and radical policy shift. It can be done in an unbelievably simple and logical approach. And that is to make dzongkha language learning ‘enjoyable’. Backed up by research in learning and pedagogy, we have progressed well in making learning of other subjects engaging, active, learner focused and fun. In all other subjects, we employ active learning pedagogy, constructivism, and differentiated instruction to make learning an enjoyable and meaningful engagement for our learners. But in the teaching of dzongkha language, we have relegated it to teachers whom we have not cared to expose them to the different learning methods and approaches. The dzongkha learning materials have also received scant attention resulting in limited interaction between the learners and the learning materials.
Perhaps, most of our dzongkha teachers operate with folk psychology of knowledge and learning. To many of them, knowledge is stuff. Student’s mind is an empty vessel. Learning is the act of filling up the empty vessel with the knowledge. This act is to be done by the teachers. This folk psychology results in our dzongkha teachers “teaching” dzongkha through rote learning and the teacher transmitting the text to the students. Consequently, learning becomes teacher centered, painful and most times ineffective.
Learning is constructed in the minds of learners through an interactive process between ideas and experiences of the learners. Learners create their own meanings as they comprehend the world, the idea or the concept. Teachers, like the scaffold, can only deepen and facilitate that interaction of ideas and experience to happen in the learners. Knowledge, therefore is not a stuff existing to be picked up, teachers, therefore, is not the transmitter and learner’s minds are not empty vessels. That is why; dzongkha as it is taught today is not meaningfully comprehended let alone enjoyable.
Through the use of research based learning pedagogy, dzongkha can be made not only interesting but effective just like English and other subjects. It simply needs to be taught like the other subjects. There are incidences where some of our dzongkha lopens are using these active learning pedagogy with remarkable results. Dzongkha simply needs to be given equal treatment with trained teachers teaching the subject and not abuse it by making it the medium to teach other subjects.
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