Country Profile:

The Kingdom of Bhutan is situated in between India and China with 46,000 Sq.Km. with a population of 600,000. The country is completely landlocked, with rugged mountainous terrain rising steeply from 100 meters at the southern borders to over 7000 meters to the north. The country can be broadly divided into three geographical divisions corresponding to 3 distinct climatic zones of sub-tropical southern belt, the central inner Himalayan temperate region and the higher alpine region. The population is widely scattered across the steep mountain slopes and some valleys in the southern and the temperate belt making the outreach of any social service very difficult. Over 85% of the population are engaged in subsistance farming although only 8% of the land is under cultivation.

Selected Development Indicators (Bhutan 2020):

Indicator 1999

Crude birth rate(per thousand) 39.9

Crude death rate (per thousand) 9.0

Life expectancy (years) 66.1

Immunization coverage (%) 90

Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) 70.7

Maternal Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) 3.8

Under-5 Mortality Rate (per 1,000 live births) 96.9

Adult literacy rate 54

GDP per capita (US$) 551

Gross primary enrolment rate(%) 72

Education system:

It is the 7 year primary education cycle with secondary education program comprising 2 year Junior High, 2 years of High and another 2 years of Junior College. While the Junior High along with Primary encompass the basic education level and is intended to be universal, post basic education is more restrictive and aligned to cater to the human resource requirenment of the country. A number of training options are available at this level catering to engineering, agricultural extensions, health sciences, secretarial and teacher education. A major policy shift in recent times is to make the secondary education much more relevant by introducing basic skills program within the curriculum, introducing counselling and orienting the youth to the world of work. At the same time, significant initiatives have been made to bring the technical education under a national framework to provide coordination, standards and relevancy. A National Technical Training Authority has been established to undertake this task.

Adult and Continuing Education:

The vision is to create learning opportunities for all people at any stage of life. The entire population should be literate in the national language, Dzongkha, and numerate. 

It is aimed at providing opportunities for those outside the formal system of education to learn new skills and knowledge through a system of continuous education.

Current Situation of Non Formal Education (literacy):

At present, there is a national program of non-formal education which aoms to impart literacy and numeracy skills to people outside of the formal system of education, particularlyrural womwn and girls. With an increasing number of people completing the nine to twelve months basic literacy course, an additional program for post-literacy support is underway. This program aims to support neo-literates in retaining literacy skills through access to reading material and instructional support. The post literacy program also aims to disseminate useful information on a variety of subjects including helath, hygiene, nutrition, improved child-rearing practices among others toward improving people's quality of life.

There is no integration between the formal and non-formal programs with the exception that non-formal classes are often held in school facilities after the end of the regular school days and teachers from the formal system provide NFE instruction after being trained in adult education concept and pedagogy. Therefore, there is a lot of importance given to the material development for Post Literacy courses.

My presentation is based on how we develop the need based learners' relevant materials which is presented in brief in the following.

Material Development Process:

The process of teaching and learning material development for literacy courses in Bhutan involves five distinct steps: holding a national writers workshop; selection of materials for immediate improvement and printing; invitation of comments and suggestions for improvement of materials; presentation of final draft to the National Steering Committee; and preparation of formal approval for printing.

Step 1: Conducting a writers workshop

The first step, conducting a national writers workshop, is by far the most major activity and consists of nine sub-activities. These activities can be grouped roughly into three categories: i) information collection, ii) needs analysis and iii) output. 

For information collection there are two activities. First, to be obtained is the Input of resource persons. Participants are given conceptual training on a step by step approach to material development including how to conduct a need assessment survey and develop need based materials. The second activity is the needs assessment/problem survey where participants in small groups visit different households in a selected community to conduct a needs assessment survey. The needs assessment survey is conducted with interviews using a questionnaire as well as with observation and interaction with local communities. Data and information is collected on the needs and problems of the community to be shared in their respective groups. 

There are two activities for need analysis. In their respective sub-groups, participants analyze the needs and problems of the community through a participatory method. Second is the Identification of areas for material development, which is based on the need assessment. Broad areas for material development are drawn up, which include themes such as agriculture, health, functional knowledge, or value education. 

Five activities are undertaken which are directly linked to the output of the workshop. First is the production of the curriculum grid. Each of the areas identified are elaborated in the curriculum grid which consists of the title, topics, objectives, contents and follow-up exercises. The next step is deciding the format for each of the titles. Then there is the development of prototype materials, where each group develops three to four prototype materials on the titles decided. Inter-group exchange of ideas on improvement of materials is encouraged during this process of material development. Next is the field testing of materials and requires participants to field-test the developed materials with the learners in the community. With the aid of an evaluation questionnaire, participants collect feedback, comments and suggestion from the learners for improvement of materials. They also use their own observation sheet to record the findings on improvement of the materials. The final activity is the incorporation of comments/suggestions for improvement. After the field test, the individual group incorporates the suggestions and comments of the learners and improves the prototype materials.

Step 2: Selection of materials for immediate improvement and 

printing:

After the workshop, the NFE Section selects materials for immediate improvement and printing. The selected materials are then further improved in content, context and language.

Step 3 : Invitation of comments and suggestions for improvement

of materials

This next step involves the circulation of the selected draft materials for comments and suggestion from all the different sections of the education division and other agencies like agriculture and health, that is, if the materials are related to health and agriculture.

Step 4 : Presentation of the final draft to the National Steering 

Committee (NSC)

The final draft of the selected materials are presented to the national steering committee meeting of NFE for comments and suggestions and approval. Approval is also obtained for printing in principal.

Step 5 : Formal approval for printing

Finally, formal approval is obtained from the Ministry of Education. The NFE Section then suggests a quotation for printing.