General

If you are a traveler on the Thimphu –Phuntsholing highway and you are in between Wangkha and Taktikothi; you must have not missed a great waterfall far in the east. More than that have you ever imagine a soul living there. Yes there is Toktogom Community Primary School established in 2006. It is in average five hours walk for a new visitor. At present there are only 25 students from PP-III with only two teachers including a principal and a caretaker a basic need for a school to start. The three staffs make themselves comfortable in a staff quarter made by the community. However the quarter is of poor quality. And storm which occurred a couple of years back has made it worse especially the roof. “ The repair work was done immediately but due to the poor skills of the community it has given rise to the roof leakage especially in the summer season. “We do have to throw exactly a bucket of water after putting an empty bucket under the leak.” Said Nima Tshering a teacher. The school is quite near to the Chukha Hydro Project, but the irony is it is still in the darkness. The school depends on five solar lamp with only two working. “We always can’t depends on solar. So we are always equip with Kerosene . Owing to the frequent change in Chukha climate, one can’t be sure whether your your solar will last till your dinner or not.” Said Mr. Gangla the caretaker.

The school starts at 8 in the morning. Then the flight is on till 4 in the evening. There is no so called free period. The two teachers teach for 40 periods of 50 minutes in a week. “I know people have a notion that teachers in remote area are carefree and are not that busy as seen in the print. But we don’t care, all the teachers know that the whole world deep inside their heart agree that teacher’s work is challenging and they have a silent respect for us and thank you for that” said the Principal. The office remain silence and empty till 4 except for some mice. “ We don’t feel like taking dinner after heavy work. We simply can’t create the mood of entering the cool kitchen and prepare the dinner. Instead we make early to bed for early rise to see the day.” Said Nima Tshering. The only entertainment is the BBS programme. Then they walk for some distance away from the school to get connected themselves with the outside world. “We all have subscribe a miss call alert in our cell. I don’t know how important it is for people living in the urban. But its lot more than just saying helpful. There was an incidence where my college was able to meet his late father only through this miss call alert. There after we made a point to check out for our miss call and their frequency. We come to know of those person who have tried to contact us. We just wish we have a laptop with datacard so that we can correspond official letter through email. I strongly feel that some time should be dedicated in connecting our remote school with the mobile network. Of course for power we can make up with the solar light. If this small technology bless our remote school, then no school will remain as remote.” Said the principal. They also uses GPRS facility, however they find it quite expensive and time consuming.
Since the community is located in the high altitude, there is no sign of abundant vegetable. People sell nothing at all. The huge number of cattle is mainly for only organic fertilizer. All the things including dairy product, vegetables and many more need to be imported from Mebesa, the nearest commercial point. Owing to the less number of household, the community support is bit poor. “It is a great an honour for a community with just 14 household to have a school. We do understand that they have their farm work beside supporting school. So I don’t pressurized them to work for school. They are doing their best, however yes their support is poor” said the principal.

The school have only one unit toilet with girls and boys separated. The staff survive on temporary toilet made by the community. Recently they have modified with some cartoon. “Thank god, there is no lady staff, otherwise it is quite see through type.” Said Nima Tshering giggling. The community is female dominated community. The community depends on the only cash crops, that is potatoes. There are still few students who have no idea of how really a vehicle looks. “Of course we have no problem in explaining how plane look for we see Druk Air atleast for 15-20 seconds everyday” said the Principal.