Long Road to School

Dechen Zangmo and Tshering Phuntsho returning from school

Lhuentse: For some children in the east, the road to education is long and arduous. For them, education is hours of walk away from their homes.

When most Bhutanese would be still in bed, the day starts for two little children from Gorgan, a roadside settlement in Lhuentse. Their school is more than five kilometres away from their home.

Six-year-old Tshering Phuntsho and his 10-year-old sister, Dechen Zangmo, wake up at the crack of dawn at 4. By 6, they start their daily walk to Kupingyelsa Community Primary School. The school starts at 8.30 am, and it’s more than two hours before the bell rings. But between their home and school lies five kilometres of road. They walk as fast as they can but there is only so much their little legs can do. Sometimes, they are late for the morning assembly.

Sometimes, when they are lucky, the children can hitch a ride in a passing car which is a rare sight on the Mongar-Lhuentse highway. They mostly walk to and from school.

Tshering Phuntsho tends to get playful on the road. He often scurries off the road to pluck a leaf or throw a stone at chirping birds. He is cheerfully oblivious to the physical exertion. Dechen, who has to carry a basket containing two lunch packs and two water bottles on top of her school bag, prods her brother on. However, when her brother becomes unmanageable, they get late to school.

“Sometimes, I become so tired that I have to sit for a while before joining the assembly,” Dechen said. “I tell my brother not to play and run around on the road.”

The siblings say coming home in the evening is easier because they do not have to worry about getting late. Their classes are over at 3 pm. They immediately start their walk back and reach home at around 5.30 pm or 6 pm.

The mother of the siblings, Tashi Yangzom, says despite the tiring daily walk, the children never complain about it. “There has never been a day when they did not want to go to school,” she said. “They are always excited to go to school.”

Tashi said sometimes the children come home so tired that they fall asleep even before eating dinner.

Dechen was once sent to Phuentsholing with Tashi’s sister so that she could go to a nearby school. After her aunt was transferred and Tshering Phuntsho was admitted to school, Dechen had to come back to Gorgan. Her little brother needed a friend and guide.

Three children from Gorgan walk to Kupingyelsa CPS.

Every day, when the children leave for school, their parents warn them of falling boulders, landslides and speeding vehicles.

Tashi Yangzom and her husband, who is an employee of Food Corporation of Bhutan, cannot reach their children to school every day. But when it rains, either of them walks the children to school.

One of the campaign promises of Druk Phunsum Tshogpa was to ensure that no child walks more than an hour to school. More than three years on, children walking for hours to school are common in the east.

Source: Bhutan Observer