Our School is one of the six schools selected for piloting iSchool Project in Bhutan. Tendruk Higher Secondary School, Khasadrapchu Middle Secondary School, Khututhang Middle Secondary School, Phuntsholing Middle Secondary and Pelkhil School are the other school connected, with Pelkhil as the center.
The project was launched formally on 29th March 2014 by Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay in Pelkhil and the participating schools took part in the event virtually.  |
| Prime Minister talking to all 6 Schools during the Inauguration |
What is iSchool Project about?
The iSchool Project is a joint undertaking of the Royal Government of Bhutan, Bhutan Telecom and Ericsson. In the face of a continuing shortage of qualified teachers, the project hopes to take advantage of the opportunities available from the extensive communication assets already installed in Bhutan to provide a multiplier impact. The project will use the high speed internet network in conjunction with top of the line video conferencing technology to allow a few teachers to reach dozens of classrooms and hundreds of students, across Bhutan in real time. Teachers at the ‘master' classroom will teach and reach students in the ‘remote' classroom via video and will also be able to receive and answer normal questions from the students in any of the classrooms.
The ‘remote' classrooms selected to participate in the pilot phase are not really that remote given the short time that was available to set up the project. However, in the future, the benefiting schools could well be extremely remote and yet benefit from the best teachers located in selected ‘master' classrooms located anywhere in Bhutan.
Besides having access to top quality teachers on a live platform, the lessons will also be available for download for students who missed a lesson, and these lessons can be downloaded from any school.
The iSchool idea is not intended to provide a single solution to cover every issue in the education sector. It is just one tool, that in conjunction with many other programs will help to cover every need in the sector.
In addition to providing live video conferencing technology to reach many schools, technology such as the ‘smart' camera and associated software provides innumerable tools to the teacher to improve the delivery process. Smart whiteboards with an unlimited number of ‘screens' that can be switched on demand effectively provides an endless number of blackboards on which to present lessons. A document camera will enable the teacher to show real samples to help explain specific concepts to the students.
Initially a few core subjects including Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and English will be taught. (From Phekhil, Facebook)
