Introduction

Ever since its establishment as the Kingdom’s first teacher training institute in 1968, Samtse College of Education (SCE) has given the country’s education system over 8000 graduates with Primary Teaching Certificate (PTC), Bachelor of Education (B. Ed), Diploma in Library Information and Management System and Diploma in School Science Laboratory Management, Postgraduate Diploma in both Education and Contemplative Counselling Psychology, and Masters degree qualifications. Inaugurated by the Late His Majesty Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck on 29 May 1968, the erstwhile Teacher Training Institute (TTI) commenced its educational journey with an initial enrolment of 41 students and a few teacher educators. Over the years, SCE has grown both in terms of study programmes offered and student enrollment. Currently, the College offers Master of Education (M.Ed) in three Sciences, Maths, English and Geography; Postgraduate Diploma in Education and Postgraduate Diploma in Contemplative Counselling Psychology; Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education; Bachelor of Arts in Social Work, and short tailor-made professional development courses specifically designed for secondary school teachers and counsellors working in agencies that provide helping services. 

As one of the first few premier education institutions established in the country to meet the teacher needs in the country’s education system, the alumni of Samtse College of Education have played an instrumental leadership role in the overall development of Bhutan’s education system. The positive impact of the alumni of this premier teacher education institution is not just limited in the field of education but have served in various executive and leadership roles in the country’s civil service and the highest decision making positions as politicians and parliamentarians. Valuing the knowledge, wisdom, experience, expertise, dynamism, diversity, and potential contribution all our distinguished alumni can make towards helping the College to re-calibrate and re-envision the teacher education courses we offer, Samtse College of Education has initiated to formally establish an alumni association of the College named as “SCE Alumni Association” 

The role of alumni is viewed as crucial in the overall growth and development of any institution as they represent a window to the past and are an inspiration for the vision of the future. Since they are ambassadors of their alma mater, their contributions and involvement can significantly increase the reputation of the Institution nationally and internationally. Hence, this document is prepared in order to foster an enduring connection between the College and its alumni population through events and activities that are mutually beneficial. 

Aims and objectives

SCE Alumni Association aims and purports to create a platform that not only serves to build a community of alumni group that shares a special and unique community feeling and bonding as graduates of this teacher education institution  but also to make a positive impact in the development of its alma mater by capitalising on the talents, expertise, diverse experience, knowledge, wisdom, intellect and resourcefulness each alumna/alumnae can bring to this association. More specifically, the SCE Alumni Association aims to:

  1. fuel the alumni’s desire and drive for lifelong learning through active collaboration and engagement with academics in the College through various events and programmes that encourages intellectual and scholarly pursuits;
  2. promote a sustained sense of belongingness to the alma mater to enable the alumna/alumnae to treasure the learning and growth experienced during their education in this College of Education;
  3. rebuild their past relationships/friendships for a healthy social life amongst the alumni population;  
  4. create a community of practitioners for effective professional networking to promote exchange of knowledge, professional expertise, and experiences through intellectual meets such as conferences, seminars, workshops and training;
  5. strengthen the relationship between the alma mater and the alumni in the field, especially those working in the schools and relevant education stakeholders to ensure that the currency, relevancy, and effectiveness of the teacher education curriculum and instructional pedagogies adopted in the College are aligned with recent trends and development in the field;
  6. explore possibilities of joint research projects between interested alumni and teacher educators at the College on topical educational and social issues related to education and accordingly publish these research reports to generate healthy debates and discussions to inform new reforms and policy formulations; and 
  7. explore possibilities of creating SCE Alumni Association Trust Fund through donations and contributions from interested alumni to provide scholarships to students with high academic excellence and to support alumni events organised by the Alumni Association Secretariat Office at the College.

Services to alumni members

Samtse College of Education as the alma mater to our distinguished alumni shall provide the following services:

  1. organize alumni meet to facilitate the reunion of the alumni through professional development programmes including various interactive sessions, panel discussions, conferences, seminars and training;
  2. facilitate networking with faculty, students and alumni for joint research or academic engagement by inviting professionally competent and motivated alumni teachers and other professionals for guest lectures based on their expertise;
  3. share electronic copies of all College publications such as the ShesRig Pages – College Newsletter, Educational Innovation in Practice (EIP) Journal; STEM Education Newsletter;  research publications by academics in the College and recent trends of educational innovation and practice;
  4. provide opportunities to hone their academic writing skills by inviting the alumni to contribute scholarly articles  to ShesRig Pages – College Newsletter, EIPJournal, and other academic publications;   
  5. invitations to participate in important College events to represent the alumni members;
  6. recognize alumni with special contributions to the College and Alumni Association through a special coverage of the Alumni’s profile in the ShesRig Pages – College Newsletter, published biannually.

Role of Alumni

Our alumni as our graduates still continue to be an important part of the history of this premier teacher education institute that has served the country’s education system for almost 55 years since its establishment in 1968. As the alumni of the College, each alumnus is a unique and special representative of their alma mater and the alumni are the true ambassadors of an institution where they would have witnessed a significant growth and development both in terms of their professional and personal maturity. As an alma mater to the hundreds and thousands of alumni, Samtse College of Education takes an immense pride and honour for the privilege and blessings of being part of our alumni’s educational journey and learning epochs. 

The College sincerely and genuinely values the huge potential each of our alumni holds in contributing towards the development of the College and at the same time continue to benefit from the College in their continuous professional growth and development. To realise these aspirations, Samtse College of Education as your alma mater expects each of our distinguished alumna to: 

  1. use the Alumni Association as a platform to build each other’s professional competencies through sharing of good practices and by being a perpetual learner, continuously fueling one another’s desire and urge for learning;
  2. contribute through sharing of views and ideas in the decision making and development of the College in terms of developing a teacher education curriculum (counselling also) that is dynamic, current, relevant, and effective to suit the changing times; 
  3. participate actively in College events physically or remotely whenever possible as guest speakers or in other capacities to stay connected with the alma mater for mutual benefits;
  4. mentor young alumni members to adapt, settle, and get grounded initially in their career so that they have a good career start for a more fulfilling and satisfying career as a teacher/counsellor/social worker/etc.;
  5. collaborate with academics in the College by participating in collaborative research and scholarly pursuits that culminates into research publications and policy briefs that generates useful intellectual debates and deliberations to inform policy formulations and decision-makings at a systemic level;
  6. share their expert professional knowledge and experiences by contributing through intellectual expressions in publications such as the Educational Innovation in Practice (EIP) Journal, ShesRig Pages – College Newsletter, STEM Education Newsletter, and other scholarly publications the College publishes biannually/annually; and 
  7. make monetary donations or contributions on the basis of interests and individual alumni’s financial capacity to support Alumni related initiatives, activities, and events including scholarships to support students with high academic excellence with admirable personal and professional attributes with a potential for a promising future career.

Registration and Membership 

Upon graduation from the College, irrespective of the course taken, the student automatically becomes an alumnus of the College. However, to become a member of the SCE Alumni Association, each alumnus shall be expected to register by filling up the online Alumni Registration Form (Annexure A) and submit accordingly. 

The SCE Alumni Office in the College will be creating the SCE Alumni Facebook group for information sharing and dissemination of any important information. A dedicated webpage on the College website shall also be created to record the events and activities of SCE Alumni Association.

SCE Alumni Association Fund 

The College Alumni Office, in consultation with the SCE Alumni Association Executive Committee, shall organise fundraising events to mobilise funds to establish SCE Alumni Association Trust fund to support alumni events and activities. This fund shall be maintained in a separate Bank Account opened in the name of SCE Alumni Association, which will be operated jointly by the Dean of Research and Industrial Linkages, who is the co-chair of the Alumni Executive Committee, College Finance Officer who will serve as the Treasurer of the Alumni Association, and an alumna representative from a nearby school in Samtse.

The Alumni Association Treasurer will be required to present the financial statements and annual expenditure of the Association in the SCE Alumni Association Biannual general assembly, which will be hosted virtually by the Alumni Office at the College. The same budget if desired by the Alumni members can also be made available for auditing by the Royal Audit Authority for transparency and for the promotion of honesty and integrity in the use of funds thus mobilised.   

SCE Alumni Association Executive Committee

The Alumni Association shall function and operate under the advice and guidance of the SCE Alumni Association Executive Committee. The members of the Executive Committee Members will be:

  1. Dean of Research and Industrial Linkages  – Co-chair
  2. Elected Alumni Member – Co-chair
  3. SCE Teaching Faculty (Alumni Office) – Member Secretary
  4. Elected Alumni Member – Male Member
  5. Elected Alumni Member – Female Member
  6. Elected Alumni Representative from nearby school – Member 
  7. Dean of Student Affairs – Member
  8. Admin. Officer – Member
  9. Finance Officer – Member and Treasurer
  10. Student Record Officer (SCE Alumni Office) – Member

Note: The College President can participate in the Alumni Association meeting as an invitee depending on the kind of agenda proposed for the meeting.      

Responsibilities of the SCE Alumni Association Executive Committee

The Committee shall:

  1. serve as the Secretariat Office and advisory body to coordinate all Alumni Association events and activities;
  2. advise the Alumni Association to think of creative and innovative ways of engagement to contribute in the development of the College as their alma mater;
  3. facilitate registration of new alumni members and establish network amongst the alumni members to build a community of professionals;
  4. maintain membership records of the Alumni Association and update the Committee annually;
  5. prepare alumni engagement activities by inviting online suggestions and views from the members of the Alumni Association; 
  6. facilitate successful implementation of alumni activities as per the annual plan endorsed by the Alumni Executive Committee;
  7. serve as a bridge between the College Management and the Alumni Association;
  8. report financial statement of the Association through the Treasurer of the Alumni Association to the College Management and the Alumni Association; and 
  9. submit the annual report of the Association to the College Management Committee and publish the Annual Alumni Report on the Alumni webpage on the College website.

Frequency of Meeting

The Alumni Association Executive Committee shall meet four times (quarterly) similar to the other programmes in the College. The College Alumni Office upon the approval of the Executive Committee will present the Alumni Activities Plan at the beginning of every Semester and review the plans prepared at the end of every Semester thus fulfilling the four quarterly meetings in a year. 

Meeting quorum

The minimum quorum shall be two third majority of the members present for the meeting. 

Annexure A

SCE Alumni Association Registration Form   

Please kindly complete the Alumni Association Registration form and join the SCE Alumni Association!

Full Name:                                          Gender (M/F): 

DoB (dd/mm/yy):
CID No:  Student Number:
Name of the Programme (PTC/Diploma in Library Information Management/

Diploma in Laboratory Management/B.Ed Pry/B.Ed Sec/PgCE/PgDE/PgDCCP/PgCHE/PgDHE/PgCert in HE/MA in Contemplative Counselling/M.Ed in Biology/M.Ed in Chemistry/M.Ed Physics/M.Ed in Maths/M.Ed in English/M.Ed in Geography):

 Year of Enrollment: 

Year of Graduation:
Current Educational Qualification: Current Organisation:
Title of Current Job:     Dzongkhag:
Email Address: Contact Number:
Date of Registration: 

     

To register online, please click the link given below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQwiOtD5pUCxTHd_E3M0DHM6JVikSyBG32UUKDaOlyyGlOEw/viewform 

Thank You for Registering with Us!