My Takeaway from ABRC 2025

Indeed, many things are happening around the world. The year 2025 is already slipping away from our hands, and it has been a challenging year for many countries, from Trump’s tariffs to rapid changes driven by AI and emerging technologies, and global conflicts that have cost thousands of innocent lives. Conversely, several interesting and inspiring developments are unfolding around us.

For the past three days (3rd–5th December), I found myself fully absorbed in a Facebook livestream from the Royal University of Bhutan. It featured an insightful knowledge-sharing event called the "3rd Australia-Bhutan Research Conference". Despite my tight schedule, I made a point of listening to all the scholars, researchers, and academicians, mostly from Bhutan and some from Australia, as they shared their perspectives. 

I do not regret spending my time listening. The program was well-structured and well-coordinated. Many moments made me pause and think, "Wow!" Our Bhutanese friends and scholars have accomplished remarkable work, not only within Bhutan but also in a highly developed country like Australia. 

As we have transformed from medieval ideas to global perspectives, I'm sure that almost every Bhutanese, perhaps 99%, is familiar with Australia. I'm certain that even my parents, who never attended school, know about this country.

I was particularly drawn to the sessions on artificial intelligence, generative AI, and other technologies influencing our education and health sectors. I was equally impressed by the research shared on health, well-being, nature, medicine, and more. The depth of studies conducted by Bhutanese researchers, often in collaboration with international experts, especially from Australia, was truly inspiring.

Listening to the Vice Chancellor of RUB was a highlight. He is someone whose wisdom and leadership I deeply admire, a figure I have always looked up to for guidance and personal transformation. I also appreciate the Ambassador of Bhutan to Australia for envisioning and coordinating this event, recognizing that for our country to progress, research must become part of the DNA of every sector and ministry.

I had been waiting for such a program for a long time to strengthen my own research skills. Through this conference, I gained valuable knowledge and insights, and I deeply appreciate the commitment of the entire team and all our Bhutanese researchers. Their work benefits not just themselves, but Bhutan and the wider world in many meaningful ways. 

Please continue this excellent work.

I was especially happy to hear the President of Paro College of Education share thoughtful reflections on Bhutan’s education landscape, particularly in primary education. His examples of transforming teaching, promoting kindness, and personally supporting students by printing storybooks from his own pocket were deeply touching. His words reminded me of my own teaching days, where small acts of sharing with my students often warmed my heart. His message echoed my own lived experiences.

There are, however, a few things we can improve for future high-level exchange programs: better microphones or technology support, clearer audio for online viewers, and stronger time management.

I want to thank everyone involved in organizing such a meaningful event. We genuinely need these platforms often. I look forward to more in the future. This should not be the last but rather the beginning of a strong, knowledge-based exchange system. Our government and various agencies could also adopt some of the research findings presented, especially those with potential for business, innovation, and national development. 

Bhutan is known for mindfulness, well-being, and more tolerant people, while Australia has so much in its advancement and technology. 

IELTS – And – Me

Of late, Australia has become one of the easy destinations not only for educated but also for uneducated one. Therefore, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) has become a lifeline for aspiring individual. 

However, to me I never dreamt beyond this nation –I would like to be honest and work for this nation that has given me so much peace and happiness, including free education and medicare. Likewise, I would like to serve His Majesty and this nation with utmost dedication and integrity. For the longest time, my mind was never beyond the call of national interest. 

 

However, recently I was motivated to take this test along with hundreds others who are wishing for foreign dream. Initially, it came just that I really wanted to challenge myself and check my English status because it is required for every small task and all. I just wanted to try and raise my bar in this area because English is required in all spheres of life. 

Like any other fellow aspiring youth, I gave it a try after my brother insisted on me a number of times because he has seen teachers getting through so easily not only in test scores but also visa offers. It may be because they are nation builders and God must be merciful to this profession and individual. Therefore, to simply fulfill my brother's wish, I prepared for a few weeks in between my work and home and gave a test. 

On the test day, coming across a huge number mostly composed of young and energetic youth deeply worried me, who has all the power and ability to build this nation greater than anyone else in the world. 

Having lost in a pools of thoughts and some uneasiness within, it was a nice experience altogether, but on the other hand, we are steadily losing the young, talented, energetic and educated section of people to abroad for very genuine reasons, which for a small nation like ours is a big worry and a concern that matters so profoundly because active and productive citizen matter in the development process of the nation. I strongly feel that it is equally important for us to reflect upon our past and accordingly set system and policies of what went wrong and what can be done in such a critical moment. It is also time to really give a second thought on what lies with His Majesty's beautiful quote "what we lack in numbers, we must make up for in talent".  

With all kinds of feelings, unknown in the centre, with all faces hidden behind the mask, I gave my attempt that opened the window of foreign opportunity. The dazzling hall with around 300 people is making their way to the Australian dream. The supervising examiner made a brief announcement for the whole exam process and schedule. What amazed me more was the total number of test takers (672), which is a huge number for the population size of our country. I had my test after a hard and nerve wrecking 3 hours intense session. On the other hand, there was a moment where I just wanted to give up and run away for different reasons.

Having sweat for 3 long hours, or so, the dream of foreign land and minting dollars isn’t easy and forgiving. This could be one reason why most of our fellow Bhutanese become greedy and selfish for the fact that the process isn't easy and worth someone's selfishness. 

Let me share a few other thoughts that came to me while preparing and taking the test. Altogether, this test requires a different level of preparation and mentality since different approaches are being administered. At one point, I felt IELTS is more of a comprehension test and a time management skill.

One needs to be differently smart with a high tolerance level. Test takers must not only have the general idea and pattern of the test but also need to prepare a high level technique. Therefore, one's passion, practice and mindfulness are key to a good band score. 

In addition, those wishing to sit for a test can simply refer to a few authentic sources like Cambridge Test which are available online and some online tutorials. As one prepares for the exam, one must always adhere to a time bound setting test, need to be exceptionally good in listening skills, fast in comprehension, therefore, one must develop an english mind and eye for taking this test. I was suggested to have an Eagle eye and Dog ear! Nevertheless, someone comforted that it mostly depends upon sheer luck and indivisible force. Therefore, even at the scariest time, I learn to develop my English mind which comes at the cost of practice and passion. Nevertheless, scanning and skimming are the two important skills one need to possess for the test. The other important lesson I had was that one must not only develop a quick mindset in coordinating ideas and writing skills but also one needs to be relevant and clear to impress appraisers. Therefore, one must remember there is no room for a mistake –as one score can undo the whole result process and it costs you madly. 

With experience, I did not find much relevance in daily affairs and the testing mandates. For which listening test is only to check someone's listening power. Similarly, reading takes a very different approach as I felt more like a time management test and nothing more. On the other hand, writing and speaking tests are two different skill testing exams, first is organizing ideas and the latter is more of a confidence and expression test. 

However, there are things that I like very much about this testing system –some questions and conversations are too good to miss. Many different sections of comprehension like looking for heading, flowchart, synonyms, etc really gripped my attention that require a high level of focus and determination. I hope a few of our exams will be like such testing systems in the near future. And even more interesting was the quality of the answer paper. I wish such a quality of academic plan and process would be part of other academic affairs. 

This is one of the craziest tests I have appeared so far and would be remembered for many reasons hereafter.

Views on The Future of Printed Materials

The fate of printed newspapers and books have gone off the shelf as the cheap and easy online access is on the rise as it is just away on a click of a button. On this fact, I agree with the notion that cutting-edge technology and the ever expanding internet access is only set to mark a different footprint in the near future as we are grappling and heading into uncertain times.

One of the reasons of fading the charm of reading the printed copy of materials such as –newspapers, books and journals; is that paper-based materials are considered to be handy, expensive and difficult to manage in this time and age, when the same copy is easily available on a press of button in the powerful device called mobile phones and other electronic gadgets which is shaping the world in a different manner. This is due to the turn-over of a new cutting-edge technology and this is only set to get better and better. For instance, if I would like to read a book, or any other reading piece, which is not available nearby, I can just take a phone, click the source and instantly I get to read with the press of a button which is far cheaper and easy to manage. Furthermore, all news channels and Ebooks have their own version of online and offline apps, which is affordable that feeds every bit of information and gives updates on any new books available for reading. 

 

The other reason is that the speed of the Internet is getting better, faster and more reliable as it is also important driving force why most people opt to read online these days making a easy choice of paperless reading of any length of pages as it takes milli-second to download and open which is the ultimate desire of anyone. Nevertheless, with Internet broadband getting sharper and faster, sharing of any kind of documents with people of any choice is possible which is why most of the people glue themselves with online and offline reading choices. For example, a friend of mine is so addicted to online reading such as updating news, books, journals and research papers, which is a clear indication of fast, and reliable net connection making life easy for everyone by cutting the cost of buying printed materials. 

 

In conclusion, reading hard copy is a choice made by only a small section of old and illiterate people and it's only set to get low over the years in the face of a superior technological world backed by fast and reliable net connection regardless of backgrounds and regions one occupies.

Global Schools and SDGs Mandates

Q.

 

Have you ever conducted any lessons or projects on the SDGs or ESD within your school community? 

a.    Classroom lessons or activities

b.    Long-term projects in the classroom

c.     School-wide campaigns

As a classroom teacher, I have been educating students of various grades on some applicable SDGs goals through daily teaching or lessons. SDG goals like "no poverty, good health and well-being, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, life on land, life below land and climate action" all begin with individual action is what I always embed into teaching-learning activities. 

 

To overcome the "clean water and sanitation" challenge, I have taken various initiatives within my organization and beyond. Through the "Rotary Club of Thimphu" I have installed SkyHydrant water filter, which has the capacity to filter around 12,000 liters of "safe and clean" drinking water for school kids. As a BTO (Bhutan Toilet Organization) ambassador, I've also worked closely to uplift the sanitation (clean toilet challenge) within and outside the school campus and in recent few years the sanitation around school campus has improved a lot. Working everyday with young individuals of below 20-year gave me a lot of space to work beyond my actual role as a teacher to improve 6th SDG goal to the grassroots level.

 

 

Q.

Describe your interest in Global Schools and why you want to be an Advocate. (Please answer with bullet points and not in paragraph form. 250 words max.)   

 

a)    Self interest to eliminate some pertinent SDGs goals

b)    Know the mission, vision and objectives of SDGs and beyond

c)     Interest to share the common problem, if possible want to get some funding from different organizations like international or local organization

d)    Get ideas and doable ways to over these challenges in an effective ways

e)    I want other people to know and understand that all these challenges are man-made that can be solved easily. 

f)     Impart and instill the collective and moral responsibilities to every individual human being

g)    To let the world know that every one of us has the power to change our lifestyle. 

h)    To make this world a better place not only for present times, but also for the future generations

i)     To come up with some local ideas to this global problem

j)      Make a strong and a vibrant network among different leaders to address these challenges

k)    To instill a civic sense to the grassroots level on some important SDGs

l)     To build a strong and reliable network among educators of various regions and country

Q.

If you were tasked with creating a movement in your school around local and global issues, what steps would you take to inspire students and other teachers? (Please answer with bullet points and not in paragraph form. 250 words max.)

 

a)    I'd take some SDGs with daily lessons to teach and impart the knowledge to students of various grades and its impact for local, national and global level

b)    I'd take social media platform to create awareness on the pertinent issues around the locality and even to national level

c)     For the organization I'm working for past many years, I'd raise a voice on behalf of students about the problems and way forward to address the issue

d)    I'd include management or leaders of the organization to take a role, inspire to support the movement that would ultimately benefit everyone

e)    I'd raise a voice for the voiceless as per the constitution right

f)     I'd take a move for some important SDGs to be address based on need and situation

g)    I'd work with different organization on the need and support they required to address some SDGs

h)    I'd instill good values to individual human being for the agent of change

i)     With right resources and trainings, I'd continuously impart good sense of humanity to care everyone –even life in water

Academic Writing -I

Sub: Joining Report

I, Mr. xxx, a teacher bearing Employee ID #2xxxxx1584, have joined the school on xxx after I have been relieved from xxx. 

As I have not availed my preparatory leave, I would like to credit it for my future use.  

 

Thank you

Yours Sincerely

xxx

Beyond Common Sense

This morning as I was briefly updating some Newsfeed on latest COVID-19, I came across this interesting post made in STCB Ltd page –STCBL commissioned its first ever fuel retail outlet at Ramtokto, Thimphu, today. Venerable Laytshog Lopen inaugurated the fuel retail outlet. This is not the news I was surprised and wanted to share through this post.

I was amazed if not for the first time with this warming news of –"Besides fuel, the outlet offers drinking water, clean restrooms, and free air service for customers." It immensely surprised me that we have people with some good common sense. I thought of these kinds for so long and it happened by surprise. Perhaps, we have room for better service and business as always.

This is how we need to think for a small developing nation with a very small and unstable economy. More than the news of COVID-19 pandemic that has grieved the world, I was gripped by their kindness, good gesture and innovation. We need such a forward thinking company, individual, office, institutions, lawmakers and more so our engineers who are the mother of design. 

We need business of such class and improvement, and not the business that only robs the customers alone for the poor service, this is what I feel is true –"Building a good customer experience does not happen by accident. It happens by design." Indeed, Clare Muscutt was a brilliant guy. 

With change in time and space, we need such good innovation especially in business, because I feel customers pay for the total sum of all while availing the service whatever may be the cause. Sometimes less is more!

So far most of our businesses are very plain and most of them are seen below an average. We are in need of such futuristic and innovative design in our business. This happens with good managing skills, leadership matters.

I hope this fuel station would be a role model for upcoming and already existing outlets to learn and adapt to the changing world. More importantly, all the services in the station are safe, enduring and viable one throughout. Prayers!!!

Academic Practice II: Pie Chart Illustration

The two pie charts compare the different modes of transportation people used to commute to one university for work, and study percentagewise in the year 2004, and 2009. In general, buses overtook cars to be commuters’ top choice for transport medium. 

Overall, the bus, and the cars services were availed the most in 2004, and 2009. However, the choice for both train and bicycle were not very popular, and common. 

In 2009, over a half of people (51%) travelling to the university used cars as their main mode of transport, making automobiles the most ideal one, followed by bus with 33%. However, the figure for users experienced a nearly two-fold decrease to 28% in 2004.  The trend of preferring buses to cars could be owing to installation of a new bus stop in 2006 onward. 

On the other hand, both bicycle and walking modes of transport seemed the least popular amongst all the people going to university. In 2004, train service availed was just 3%, while it increased slightly by 1% in the year 2009. However, a more substantial rise, from 9% to 16%, was seen in the bicycle users. In contrast, people travelling on foot was just a vice-versa, 4% in 2004, and 6% in 2009. 

Academic Practice: Writing Task I

Writing practice: Bar Chart

The bar chart shows/illustrates the sales of 5 different fiction novels namely young adult, classics, mystery, romance, and sci-fic, & fantasy in each year between 2006 to 2010. Y-axis (vertical column) shows the gross income, while x-axis (horizontal) indicates the sold years (2006 to 2010).

Overall, the gross earnings show the romance books were sold significantly higher than the rest of the novels throughout the period. However, sci-fic & and fantasy gave the least gross income in each year between 2006, and 2010.

The sales of the romance books in the year 2007 was the highest with the gross earnings of little over $110,000.00, and the least sale was in the following year with gross earnings of around $70,000.00. However, the sales of mystery novels in each year was the second highest between 2006 and 2010. In the year 2007 the book earned a gross earnings of little over $80,000.00 but in the rest of the years the sales of the books were very similar ranging from $60,000.00 to $ 50,000.00.

On the other hand, young adult, classics, sci-fic & fantasy were sold out the least in each year. Young adults gave very constant gross revenue in all the years. However, sci-fic & fantasy gave the least gross income as compared to classic books. The year 2007, was very important and significant because the sales of all the fiction novels was the highest income generators of the five categories earning only $20,000.00, and a mere $10,000.00 in 2009, but the rest of the years seems very similar, and constant.

Speaking Practice I

Part I: Introduction

1.      Tell me something about your home town or village, what kind of place is it?

It's quite a small village, about 60 km away from Damphu town. Indeed, it is a very quiet and beautiful village. We have just a few shops nearby because most of the people are very oriented towards farming culture. 

2.      What is the most interesting part of your home town or village?

Well, my village doesn't have any holy places, yet people are very religious, kind, and helpful. 

3.      What kind of jobs do people in your home town or village do?

Most of the people are engage in farming, social works, local government officials, business, and community services. However, we also have some health officers, engineers, and doctors who work in government offices. 

4.      Would you say it’s a good place to live?

Definitely yes, because people are friendly, kind, and helpful. Nevertheless, my village is small, and naturally beautiful. It is also beyond the call of pollution, and other human disturbances. 

Part II: Individual long-turn

1.      Describe something about yourself which is very important to you.

One of the most important things I have right now is my DSLR EOS 60D Canon camera, because I like photography, and it’s something I am very close to as a little boy. I value my camera so much since it was gifted by my wife during our first anniversary. Perhaps, hanging out with my camera gives me lots of space to forget work stress. As a passionate nature lover, I get lots of chances to connect myself with nature because every image that I take has some story of rich biodiversity, and human connection.   

Part III: Two-way discussion

1.      What kind of things (possession) give status to people in your country?

The First thing I can remember is the car. Almost everybody wants to own luxurious cars, something very expensive, and voguish one.  The others I can remember are clothing, house, and mobile phone. 

2.      Have things changed since your parent’s time?

It's something more than –beyond the "Earth and the Sky." It's absolutely different now and during my parent’s time. One very visible thing is the way we live, and eat. The others are the growth of technologies, fashion in clothes, architectures, networking, and mobile phones, etc…

3.      Do you think advertising influences what people buy?

Absolutely yes. In today's world most of the people have access to either social networking, or television. These are basically the main sources of information people get from. I have seen many of my friends, and perhaps, some of my family members have bought lots of stuff after they have seen it on the media. These days almost 95% of buying and selling things happen online, that basically is influenced by online, and television advertisement because everyone wants to try in a similar fashion like tv stars, and advertisement models. Thus, good advertisement is smart marketing in the world of ever-growing technology, and information overload.