News update

Dear friends,

With great pleasure I would like to update some news about our school from March till June 2011.

 HIGHLIGHTS:

• On 11th March we held, with support from the ministry of health, a one day workshop in our school on the topic of “WATER SAFTY PLAN”. Main topics were how to take care of a water source, maintenance of the water and basic technique on how to handle water problems.  The session was very educational and we learned a lot about the water management.  The school also received 1 set of the water tools and equipments.

• A very strong unexpected wind blew off our boys’ hostel roof and damaged the roof of our old academic building as well. Nonetheless it is fortunate that none of the students were harmed although a class was in session at the time.

The roofs of the two buildings are repaired with the financial support of Koenraad Foulon and the Choki Family. We were fortunate to be able to do the repair work much faster, before the rainy season and before much inconvenience is cause to the students and the school.

• The new admission exams for the new students took place at the school on 25th March.  55 students had applied for the 2011 admission. The admission test consisted of an oral and a written test. In the end 10 boys and 10 girls were selected for the 2011 academic program. The school now has a total of 113 students consisting of 86 boys and 27 girls studying in the school.

• On Monday, 11th April, a one day intra house volleyball competition was organized and played in the school volleyball ground. The students were divided into four groups/houses, namely Tak, Singye, Chung and Druk. At the end of the competition, Druk house emerged as the winners for this year’s volleyball tournament. The competition was witnessed by staff and teachers of CTAS along with many spectators from the neighboring Kabesa village. All the students and spectators watched the competition very patiently and cheered for their respective houses.  Small prizes were distributed to the winners and the best players of the competition.

• The 11th Foundation day of CTAS was celebrated on 21st May 2011 at the school campus in Kabesa. Sonam Rinchen, The Director of Human resources, Ministry of Labour and Human Resources graced the occasion. Amont the guests were also government officials, Graduates of CTAS, local villagers and other well wishers of CTAS. The day started with the traditional marching ceremony (wine offering) and an address by the Chief Guest followed by a class room visit. A cultural program was staged by the students of CTAS including traditional, modern and mask dances. Following the cultural program, a grand lunch was hosted by the school for all the guest and students. The day ended happily with all the guests, students and teachers of CTAS dancing the Tashi Labey – a traditional song to conclude a special occasion and to bless all the people with peace, prosperity and good health.   

• The school received as a gift eight computers and one printer from Hewlett Packard and the Fontana Foundation.  It has always been a wish of CTAS to have computers in the school so that our students would have the opportunity to learn basic computer skills and computer aided design (CAD). Everything these days is done on computers, from making an application to sending an email, it is important to be familiar with computers. Therefore, we will make the best use of these computers in our school to teach our students computer knowledge and skills. The students and staff of CTAS would like to once again thank HP and the Fontana Foundation for making this valuable gift to our school.  Thank you very very much!

• The Principal and one senior teacher of CTAS attended a two week workshop on “Training the Trainers (TOT)” From 23rd May till 4th June, 2011 in Thimphu. The workshop was organized by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR). It was the first time that such a workshop was organized for the private sector. The workshop was very helpful as it taught all the trainers how to develop standard teaching systems and to improve their personal teaching skills. The new knowledge and skills acquired from this training will be shared with all the other staff of CTAS and will be used to further strengthen and improve our teaching skills.  
• Mid term exam: This year our mid-term examination was preponed to 11th June because of Local Government Elections. The students will break for summer vacation for two weeks from 18th June till 3rd July.

• Health advocacy program was conducted on 10th June 2011 for women.

The educational program on Uterus cancer for women was conducted by one of the senior Health Assistances (HA) from the Ministry of Health in CTAS campus. The one hour session was attended by the girls, female staff of CTAS and few other female housewives from the neighborhood.

The program mainly focused on the causes and symptoms of the uterus cancer and how it can be prevented. The program concluded with an early dinner to all the participants in CTAS multi-purpose hall.

Thanking you!

With best regards,

Sonam