Including children with special educational needs (SEN) in Bhutanese regular classroom is a recent concept. With much awareness and initiatives for the inclusion of children with SEN in mainstream schools by government agencies, local civil society organizations and international organizations, there has been increase in the enrollment of children with SEN in schools every year. But given the limited professional support in the classroom and resource constraints, supporting children with SEN has been a major challenge. Studies have claimed that Bhutanese classrooms with large size (40 to 45 students in a classroom) handled by a single SEN teacher who do not have formal qualification of teaching children with SEN has posed a serious challenge in supporting the needs of the children with SEN. Further, this situation is worsened by the fact that Bhutanese classrooms do not have teacher assistants to support the children and SEN teachers. Therefore, it is asserted that the provision of teacher assistants to assist students with SEN in schools would ease the burden of under resourced teachers. In addition, the need for teacher assistants has been emphasized in Bhutan's Standard for SEN (2017), National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2019) and other national policies alike. With these national issues and policy expectations the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) has proposed this project in developing and implementing the first ever National Diploma programme in Teacher Assistant. This project will have implications for RUB in terms of capacity building, best practices, and industrial linkages with EU HEIs. It is also expected that with the implementation of this project, children with SEN and their parents in Bhutan are benefited, and provide employment opportunities to Bhutanese youths. All in all, this project is expected to address in attaining the the long term SDGs and the aspirations of developmental philosophy of Gross National Happiness.
The specific objectives of the ATTAIN Project are: 1.Develop a world class Diploma Programme for SEN Teaching Assistants.2.Meet expectations of Bhutan’s national policies and standards of special and inclusive education which is recognised as a national priority.3.Build capacity in tutors at Paro College (PCE) to teach the new Diploma Programme. 4.Meet goals of innovation and industrial linkages for HEI by working together with consortium partners and stakeholders of the ATTAIN Project.
Inclusion of children with disabilities in Bhutanese schools is a recent concept and enrollment of children with disabilities are ever increasing. Currently there are 39 schools across the country that support special educational need programmes. These schools have acute shortages of trained professionals to cater to the needs of children with disabilities. Therefore, ATTAIN aims in developing a diploma programme for SEN Teaching Assistants who can support children with disabilities.
<< Background >> Inclusion of children with disabilities in Bhutanese schools is a recent concept and enrollment of children with disabilities are ever increasing. Currently there are 39 schools across the country that support special educational need programmes. These schools have acute shortages of trained professionals to cater to the needs of children with disabilities. Therefore, ATTAIN aims in developing a diploma programme for SEN Teaching Assistants who can support children with disabilities. << Objectives >> The specific objectives of the ATTAIN Project are: 1.Develop a world class Diploma Programme for SEN Teaching Assistants.2.Meet expectations of Bhutan’s national policies and standards of special and inclusive education which is recognised as a national priority.3.Build capacity in tutors at Paro College (PCE) to teach the new Diploma Programme. 4.Meet goals of innovation and industrial linkages for HEI by working together with consortium partners and stakeholders of the ATTAIN Project. << Implementation >> As indicated in the project application, the Diploma programme could not undergo validation and endorsement from Royal University of Bhutan to be offered as a programme at PCE. In order to offer Diploma programme, the Ministry of Education (MOE) have to commit to enrolling required number of students with PCE similar to any programmes offered at PCE. However, given the current policy implications, Covid 19 recession and the transition to new Government, the MOE did not commit for time being. << Results >> Due to the issues presented by Covid19 and changes at Ministry level, there have been some administrative delays to the final validation process. The completed Diploma Programme is now awaiting endorsement from the Royal University of Bhutan to be offered as an undergraduate programme at PCE. The newly formed Government and the Ministry of Education for Skills Development are also in the process of finalizing their financial commitment to enrolling the required number of Diploma students at PCE.