སློབ་གཞུང་འཁོར་ཡིན། - the school begins!

We get off in front of a simple village school. At first no one can be seen. As we enter the half-paved courtyard, more and more children slowly approach: they are wearing their school uniforms and blue rubber boots. At some point we can no longer resist, our hands are shaken excitedly and we are asked many (always the same) questions. The excitement doesn't let up at all. Everyone breaks out their best school English and giggles when they hear our names. We just nod reverently because we can't even begin to remember the children's names - let alone pronounce them. A truly difficult undertaking.

Even before classes begin, the school's students have to perform a twenty-minute “social service” at school. Classrooms and schoolyards are tidied up and cleaned. The school family meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the schoolyard. According to strict rules, the students line up in the courtyard, meditate and sing and then salute the Bhutanese flag, which is hoisted by a responsible student.

Deeply moved and moved by the school community meeting that takes place every two days in the schoolyard, we talk to the headmaster. He tells us that some students have to walk an hour and a half to school every day.

The classrooms are very simply equipped, too small for 30 students by our standards and the only digital device in the school is the headmaster's laptop.

The teachers probably don't want to teach in front of us: classrooms are cleared out/rearranged, teachers aren't even there or just wait for us to move on to the next room after the ritual greeting. However, the children clearly enjoy showing us their English greeting rituals. If they had their way, we would be allowed to stay longer and they would be happy to show us their skills.

What we remember as particularly positive is the start together of the entire school family with 206 students and the teaching staff. The social service carried out by joining forces for the school and schoolyard as well as pausing during the subsequent meditation promotes a sense of community that is unparalleled in our school system.