Darla school changed its girls dress for second time in a year

Old red tego

A kira, woonju, tego, gho, or shoes and socks may not be the ingredients for my favorite outfit, but if I were given a choice, I wouldn't throw away the idea of school uniform. Wearing a uniform is a badge of pride, creates an identity for a school, and is an important part of being a school student.

Uniforms show that you are part of an organization. Wearing it says we're all in this together. Also, if you wear your uniform with pride, it means you are halfway there to being respectful.

Old Dress

I feel uniforms are great social equalizer. It discourages inappropriate dress, helps bolster school and academic pride, and is a no-brainer when you get dressed in the morning.

I was told by one of the parents in the morning, “My kids go to the school and uniforms were the best thing that happened. They don’t see friends having better clothes, and in the end, you can save a lot of money.”

I also feel that uniforms give students a sense of belonging to a particular school and create an identity for the school in the community.

New faded ash tego

Some people believe that a school uniform can improve learning by reducing distraction, sharpening focus on schoolwork and making the classroom a more serious environment, allowing students to perform better academically.

Perhaps most importantly, a uniform means students don't have to worry about peer pressure when it comes to their clothes. When everyone is dressed the same, worrying about what you look like isn't so important. There is no competition about being dressed in the latest trend, which would put a great deal of financial pressure on students and parents. Potential bullies have one less target for their insults; it's hard to make fun of what someone is wearing when you're dressed exactly the same.

In America, where a majority of schools do not have a uniform, roughly 160,000 children miss school every day due to fear of attack or intimidation by other students. This might not be directly linked to what they're wearing, but having a uniform can be a safety net for many students who might otherwise suffer from bullying. A strict uniform gives the impression that rules are strict too, perhaps helping maintain a sense of order at school.

New dress

The pros and cons of school uniforms

According to the proponents, school uniforms:
• Encourage discipline
• Help students resist peer pressure to buy trendy clothes
• Help identify intruders in the school
• Diminish economic and social barriers between students
• Increase a sense of belonging and school pride
• Improve attendance

Opponents contend that school uniforms:

• Violate a student’s right to freedom of expression
• Are simply a Band-Aid on the issue of school violence
• Make students a target for bullies from other schools
• Are a financial burden for poor families
• Are an unfair additional expense for parents who pay taxes for a free public education
• Are difficult to enforce in public schools

Darla school changed its girls' dress for the second time in a year. Starting from this July, our girls will be wearing ash-brown tego instead of bright red tego. A number of students have complained about the change, and there was a general opinion about this dress as really bad.

The red tego was lots of problems with many students and some teachers and parents against it. It was only due to a few persons in the school, that the red tego was to be red. Many thought it was not good. There were many reasons saying against the bright red colour. Though symbolically confident and bright, it had more negatives than its good ones. The red was so intense to look at, as it affects the eyes, especially, teachers who had to see tegos. I also heard that it attracted bulls, leeches as they were plentiful in Darla.

The tego was chosen by our school girls before the first term, and they like it now. One of the students said, "I like uniforms because everyone is same and no one can be left out by the way they are dressed. Our new tego looks smarter, which is good."

New Principal
With the change of the tego came the change of principal. Mr. Tshochu was replaced by a new principal Mr. Tshering. The former principal went to Gedu HSS, and the latter came after his studies. Till now I have worked under seven principals, and I found Mr. Tshochu to be the best of all. Though, he was also a little crooked, and who says humans are not crooked. Everyone is. Everyone was a little bit un-human and they would lack civic sense sometimes. When I have time now, I would like to list down some good and lousy leaders:

Lack of Transparency; we(i) can tell when someone is not being completely honest. There’s rarely a reason not to be entirely transparent with everyone, every time. But we appreciate an understanding of all. Lack of transparency can result in a lack of trust.
Egoistic; the best leaders are ones who accept blame when things go wrong and give credit to their team when things go right. In order to be a true visionary leader, you need to let go of your ego and focus on your people because without them you would be nowhere.

They don’t have enough confidence to lead at their level. The boss I worked in Tsirang at the start couldn’t decide because he had no faith in his decisions.

They’re arrogant, assuming they always know what’s best. It takes confidence to lead. It also takes humility. Many leaders think they’re confident when they’re really just pigheaded and proud.

They’re disorganized. I’ve worked with some hard-driving, capable leaders who hamstrung themselves by never getting organized. I had one leader like this, who ran after ladies and bother little about school. The first thing I would do if I were boss fired him.

They over-promise and under-deliver. This one affects more than just politicians. People leading up in an organization often do this because they are trying to impress those above them, failing to realize that by under-delivering they are shooting themselves in the foot. And people at the top fall into the trap by overusing promises as a way to ensure team loyalty. I see most leaders in Bhutan are like that – sycophancy.

They don’t articulate a clear vision. No one wants to follow in the dark. It’s impossible to motivate people who feel in a fog.

They don’t enroll others in their initiatives. Some leaders just expect people will follow them just because of their position. Wrong. If a leader can’t enroll others, failure looms.

They don’t hold people accountable—especially themselves. If a leader avoids responsibility and won’t hold their team accountable, they’ll shipwreck the organization. Accountability is essential.

Nobody is born with any given skill, we learn through observation and by copying others (our role-models). You might get some valuable info from reading books on this subject, but I remember an old saying, scribbled on the cover of a book I read in my teens: “Life is not learned from books, but by living it.”

While meeting great leaders has always been a wonderful experience, it is the bad ones that really enforce the true values of leadership. I’ve been lucky in this sense, as I got the chance to meet some of the worst leaders you can possibly imagine. Leaders who fail to keep up risk being clueless, close-minded, and arrogant. A lack of knowledge leads to indecision and fear and can cause employees to quickly lose trust in their leader.

Inter –house Skit Comp

A skit is an integral part of a child’s education, and it is on offer in small measure in Darla MSS. Skit or drama would bring children’s self-esteem, confidence, and communication skills. 

English literary committees conducted inter-house skit comp. on 28^th May 2016. The skit is such a new activity carried out in the school. We conducted only this year after seven or more years. The main objectives of conducting this type of skit are: Students will:

• Demonstrate knowledge of story elements by constructing an outline of a skit.
• Develop a story plot with sequential events using a plot.
• Develop listening, speaking, and performing skills by working cooperatively to create and perform a group skit
• Recognize conflict and resolution in a story by analyzing each other's skits
• To work in cooperation and groups to create a good skit.

Our students had chosen compelling and sad stories of parent-children relationships, and the value of friendship. It was an interesting one as they had an LCD projector to display the scene and pictures. They also used background score music and a sound system. Though the sound system was not that good, and shouldn’t expect from the school! After all, it wasn’t a movie or drama hall. They used whatever they had to the maximum. The stage decoration was a creative and appealing one. I personally didn’t expect our students doing well in the skit. They did well. There was ‘The Last Leaf,’ ‘A Mother’s Love,’ ‘One-eyed Mother,’ and other. Here are some stills:

The Last Leaf

Waste Management

Annual Health Check up

1.      The medical team of Gedu hospital did an annual check-up from 16- 20^th May. The doctor of Gedu hospital, ENT specialist, and a dental specialist came to our school. Some stills:

World Health Day 2016 in Darla School: Step Up: Beat Diabetics

Beat Diabetes

Darla school celebrated World Health Day. The day was marked with many health and hygiene-related activities. In the morning, we had the day’s speech by the health club members, and there the music was played about a healthy song. In the afternoon, the health staff of Darla was requested to give a talk, and upon our request, three staff came and gave wide coverage of health and hygiene issues and care. Teachers and Students from classes VI to 10 gathered in the MPH for the talk. Two health teachers gave a basic health talk to the students of class pp to V in the assembly ground. They also cleaned toilets, water tank,s and water sources. The photos below tell the story of the whole thing.

Giving speech

This was the speech delivered on that day. “Today, 7^th of April is World Health Day. It is celebrated every year on the founding day of the World Health Organization. Established in 1950 this event has a theme each year to draw attention to a current world health issue. On this day, we remind ourselves to take some extra steps to care for your health, spread the news of health and threats, and inform the important issues of global health.

This year, WHO is focusing the World Health Day, on beat diabetics.

Listening passionately

Diabetes is a serious, chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. In 2008, an estimated 347 million people in the world had diabetes and the prevalence is growing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

In 2012, the disease was the direct cause of some 1.5 million deaths, with more than 80% of those occurring in low- and middle-income countries. WHO projects that diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death by 2030.

There are 2 main forms of diabetes. People with type 1 diabetes typically make none of their own insulin and therefore require insulin injections to survive. People with type 2 diabetes, the form that comprises some 90% of cases, usually produces their own insulin, but not enough or they are unable to use it properly. People with type 2 diabetes are typically overweight and sedentary, 2 conditions that raise a person’s insulin needs.

Over time, high blood sugar can seriously compromise every major organ system in the body, causing heart attacks, strokes, nerve damage, kidney failure, blindness, impotence and infections that can lead to amputations. It was observed that 2.5% of the population (Male: 2.8%, Females: 2.1%) were known diabetics in Bhutan.

A large proportion of diabetes cases are preventable. Simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes. Maintaining a normal body weight, engaging in regular physical activity, and eating a healthy diet can reduce the risk of diabetes.

The main goals of the World Health Day 2016 campaign will be to:

• Increase awareness about the rise in diabetes, and its staggering burden and consequences, in particular in low-and middle-income countries;
• Trigger a set of specific, effective, and affordable actions to tackle diabetes. These will include steps to prevent diabetes and diagnose, treat and care for people with diabetes; and
• Launch the first Global report on diabetes, which will describe the burden and consequences of diabetes and advocate for stronger health systems to ensure improved surveillance, enhanced prevention, and more effective management of diabetes.”

Health talks by Darla BHU staff

And it begins

Wide coverage of topics

How to? and What to?

What is H1N1 and others...?

Demonstrating practically

MHM and care

Our health board with various messages

Students cleaned the water tank