Message from the Principal of Tsoknyi Gechak School, Rashmi KC:
On Rinpoche’s and senior nuns’ request, we were asked to assess the situation in the Thandroling nunnery and start something to engage the students back in September 2020. They have around 25 school going nuns. First, we assessed their language abilities and grade levels. The nunnery doesn’t have sufficient infrastructure to start a full fledged school, so we decided to start a kindergarten for younger ones and for the older ones, we wanted to run language classes so that they can transition to Tsoknyi Gechak School next year.
The idea is that we will have a full fledged kindergarten next year. We almost have it now but need to supply more materials and teacher training. Those students who are in upper grades will be attending Tsoknyi Gechak School during the day from next academic year (April/May 2021) . We will drive them in the morning and bring them back to Thandroling from Chobhar in the afternoon. Gradually, we will add grades 1..2..3 up to 8 in Tsoknyi Gargon School (hopefully within the next 3-5 years). We will take it slow as we will need to develop physical infrastructure and a solid team.
On December 22, 2020, we started our Kindergarten with an opening ceremony led by the nuns chanting and praying in Tsoknyi Gargon School. We now have language classes in English, Nepali and Tibetan. We also do basic numeracy classes. We have one Kindergarten teacher, one Tibetan teacher and one Nepali/English teacher. She also does some numeracy classes with the older students. My team has done a wonderful job to get this started and Rinpoche is pleased to see this moving along!
