Bylakuppe: The Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration, conducted a three-day Reading Skills Workshop for the Primary Schools’ Heads and Tibetan Teachers of the South-Zone at Sakya Guest House, Bylakuppe from 7 – 9 August, 2024.

The trainer, Ven. Beri Palden Namgyal and Sonam Gangsang, Early Grade Reading project coordinator of the Department of Education, attended the inaugural session and took the sessions of the three-day workshop. There were 29 participants consisting of 5 Primary School heads, 20 Tibetan Language teachers and 4 participants from Dzongkar Choede and Sera-Jey Monastic schools.

Over the course of this workshop, the participants are introduced to a range of reading strategies and activities such as Book-Talk, Read-Aloud, Word-relay, Guided Drawing, Dog and bones, Tibetan Language Tambola game, Tibetan words Snake game etc. These activities can be applied to the large group in the regular class-room setting as well as to the smaller group of students who have reading difficulties. The participants also visited the Trisong Library and performed Book-talk activities, followed by the visit to the Deer-Park at Kushalnagar.

The participants are presented with a set of children’s books and flex charts for vocabulary activities to encourage them to read children’s story books and to do more activities with students. Further the participants are given the post-workshop assignment to identify students with reading difficulties from their school and apply the strategies learned from this workshop. In Sept, the participants will give online presentation of their assignment and share it with the rest of the participants.

The similar workshop for the participants of North-zone was held in June at CHTS, Sarah. Through this workshop, participants are encouraged to learn and extend reading support to students one-on-one in a structured yet enjoyable environment, particularly to those students who struggle in reading Tibetan.

This Reading Skills workshop is jointly facilitated and coordinated by Sonam Gangsang from the Department of Education with the two LEC Alumni based in South, Karma Dolker from TCV Bylakuppe & Tenzin Thokmey from STS Gurupura.

The Reading Skills workshop is a TSRR program, funded by USAID.