Following the recent recruitment of Early Childhood Care and Development facilitators in Sarpang, eight ECCD centres will open by the end of this month. Without facilitators, the centres have remained closed. Sarpang has 25 government ECCD centres and seven private ECCD centres.
Constructed in 2021 the ECCD centre in Umling Gewog’s Chhubarthang village remained closed, so far.
According to the chief district education officer, they were waiting for the Royal Civil Service Commission’s approval to recruit ECCD facilitators.
The official added that the RCSC has approved the recruitment and one of the facilitators will be placed at Chhubarthang.
The residents of Chhubarthang village welcomed this news. Some residents say until now, they have been sending their children to an ECCD centre, which is far from the village.
For some, their children are kept at home and at times with neighbours.
“We have an ECCD centre next to Umling Middle Secondary School. But having a centre here is more convenient for farmers like us. During rainy days, we have to carry our children on our backs. We cannot work on the farm as we have to stay there. But if the centre, which is located here is open, we can work after dropping the children. We would be grateful if we get a facilitator,” said Ugyen Lhamo, a resident.
“We requested a facilitator during the Gewog Tshogde and Dzongkhag Tshogdu. But we have yet to get one. For now, we have to walk for more than one hour to reach our children to the ECCD centre. We are facing difficulty,” said Samdrup, a resident.
“The ECCD centre was built more than two years ago but it is currently unoccupied. We are not sure what the problem is but we hope it will be opened in 2023 or 2024,” said Leki Wangmo, Tashithang Tshogpa.
According to chief district education officer Tshochu, they are going to open the centre by the end of this month.
“We are going to open ECCD centres by this month. Facilitators are all ready.”
Like Chhubarthang, another ECCD centre in Umling Gewog will have a facilitator.
Similarly, the other five ECCD centres, which will have facilitators are Chhudzom, Dekiling, Jigmeling, Gelephu, and Singye Gewogs.
Karma Wangdi, Sarpang
Edited by Tshering Zam
