Courses Offered

The college currently offers five different courses, which include the one-year Post Graduate Diploma in Education (PgDE) course, the four-year B.Ed Secondary and B.Ed Primary courses, the four-year B.Ed distance education course and three year certificate course in Primary Maths and Primary English. While the first three are fulltime pre-service courses, the last two are offered through the distance mode to in-service teachers and other in-service candidates who work in various sectors in the Bhutanese education system. The Primary Teachers Certificate (PTC) programme was discontinued in July 2000.

1. Bachelor of Education (Secondary); B.Ed(S)
This course is offered to class 12 graduates and comprise a wide variety of modules that focus on personal and professional development and specialization in specific subjects of the students’ choice. The course also includes the study of current school curriculum subjects. A unique feature of the course lies in the fact that it places equal emphasis on the learning of theory and practice. A student enrolled for the B.Ed Secondary course can choose between science and arts subjects based on his/her performance in the class 12 examinations. The training requires them to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for teaching the subjects of their specialization in secondary schools. The B.Ed Secondary course was launched in 1983 when the erstwhile TTI was upgraded and renamed as the National Institute of Education (NIE). The curriculum developed for the degree course was reviewed and revised by renowned academicians from developed and developing countries. A team of visiting professors from the University of London, School of Education would make periodic visits to the college and work as moderators and external examiners for the degree courses until a few years back when NIE Samtse adopted an internally developed system of moderation, examination and evaluation of student progress and achievement.

2. Bachelor of Education (Primary); B.Ed(P)
The Bachelor of Education (Primary) course was launched in 1993 following a decision by the Teacher Education Committee (TEC) to develop a programme that would prepare a group of teachers with higher academic and professional qualifications who could teach and provide the much needed instructional leadership at the primary level. Apart from resourcing the School Based In-service Programme (SBIP) in their own areas of specialty they were expected to form a pool drawn from B.Ed Primary lecturers, Education monitoring officers and primary curriculum developers.

3. Post Graduate Diploma in Education; (PgDE)
This course was launched in 1989 as Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) with a view to providing in-country professional courses for university graduates. The PGCE programme was upgraded to PgDE in 2006. Selection interviews for the PgDE are conducted sometime in September-October each year and the selected candidates report to the college in February when the academic session commences. The actual duration of the PgDE prgramme is approximately eleven months during which the students learn a wide variety of courses related to personal and professional development and subjects of specialization. As the candidates normally have a fairly sound academic background the emphasis is on professional development.

4. Bachelor of Education (Primary) through distance mode This is an award bearing in-service program for primary school teachers. It is delivered through a distance-cum-residential school (during vacation) mode. It was launched in 1995 following a government policy to extend opportunities for continuing education to interested teachers. It is aimed not only to upgrade the professional knowledge and skills of these teachers but also improve the principles underlying the dictum – ‘Only a lighted candle can light another’.

5. Lead Teachers Certificate Course in teaching Primary Mathematics and Primary English
The Certificate course in teaching Primary Mathematics and English is a part of the SSEB (strengthening of support of Education in Bhutan), sponsored by CIDA in cooperation with the Royal Government of Bhutan and the University of New Brunswick, Canada. The project focuses on the increased capacity to provide quality English and Mathematics instruction from PP-VI. The Certificate course is a three- year program held over a span of three winters with fifty participants (25 English teachers and 25 Mathematics teachers). Professors from UNB were initially involved; but now teachers from the schools, lecturers from Colleges of Education and the CAPSD offer the course modules.