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A 45-year-old mother in Thimphu is worried about the possibility that her hard-working Grade 12 son will fail his midterm exams.
He failed twice in the monthly examinations, though he scored between 70 and 80 percent in all other subjects.
Another mother in Thimphu is grappling with a different worry. Her two children are unable to communicate with their grandparents in their mother tongue, an Eastern language. English has become the de facto first language in her home. The two children do not speak their parents’ language and have had difficulty learning basic Dzongkha.
The two mothers’ concerns highlight a wider systemic problem: the quality of Dzongkha education and resources is declining.
An employee of a print media company recently contacted a school principal in Tashigang Dzongkha to get him to subscribe to a Dzongkha electronic newspaper for his students, but was told that this was not possible due to budget constraints. This battle for resources is part of a larger crisis facing Dzongkha journalism.
Bhutan’s last two local-language newspapers, Kuensel and Gyalchi Sershog, are on the verge of collapse, in stark contrast to thriving native-language journalism in neighbouring Nepal, India and Bangladesh.
Dzongkha is the national language of Bhutan and is central to the country’s identity and sovereignty. In 2023, two media outlets appealed to the government for support, suggesting that students and institutions at the Royal University of Bhutan subscribe to Dzongkha newspapers.
The Dzongkha expert committee recommended that the government intervene to prevent the language from dying out. However, according to Gembo Dorji, owner of Gyalchi Sershog, these recommendations have been shelved due to lack of funds.
Calls for government intervention
In light of the challenges faced by mother tongue journalism, a group of media professionals and journalists from SAARC countries convened the first International Mother Tongue Journalists Conference in Kathmandu, Nepal. Journalists from the region called on governments and stakeholders to develop, protect and promote mother tongue journalism globally.
The conference adopted the eight-point Kathmandu (Timi) Declaration, calling for the protection of mother languages. The declaration, signed by executive members of the SAARC Journalists Forum (SJF), urged governments to implement the measures.
They also proposed that the birth anniversary of Nepal’s first native-language journalist, Dharmaditya Dharmacharya, be celebrated as International Mother-Language Journalism Day. Dharmacharya was a writer and activist who published the first Nepali-language magazine, Dharma, in 1925 in Kolkata, India.
The two-day conference, hosted by the Newar Journalists National Forum and supported by the SJF and the Nepal Indigenous Journalists Union, was attended by more than 50 journalists from SAARC countries and 100 journalists from Nepal. Organising committee chairman Surendra Bhakta Shrestha said the declaration will be submitted to the heads of government and stakeholders for implementation.
Chongkhabang
The Bhutanese government made an effort to promote Dzongkha as the national language as early as 1970, when the third king ordered that modern education be taught in schools along with religious texts, art and history. Initially, the classical Tibetan language Choekey was used.
The following year, His Majesty Jigme Dorji Wangchuck ordered that school textbooks must be written in the simple colloquial Dzongkha language. In September 1971, Bhutan joined the United Nations and declared Dzongkha as the national language, further consolidating its national identity.
Since then, Dzongkha has played an important role in maintaining Bhutan’s sovereignty and cultural identity. The National Assembly passed a law requiring civil servants to use Dzongkha for official communications, underscoring its importance in parliament. “Despite the limited budget, promoting Dzongkha remains our priority,” said a former national language teacher.
Another mother in Thimphu echoed her frustration, noting that her two sons, who are studying in grades 10 and 12, have difficulty understanding Dzongkha textbooks and even Dzongkha questions on their examination papers. “If they cannot understand or read the examination paper correctly, they will fail the examination,” she said.
Many students face similar difficulties and risk losing the resolutions made by successive monarchs and the National Assembly to protect the language.
In a written submission to the former prime minister in January 2023, Kuensel CEO Ugyen Penjor stressed that Bhutanese media can safeguard national identity and develop Dzongkha vocabulary. Since its first publication in 1965, Kuensel has played a vital role in promoting and using the Dzongkha language.
According to Ugyen Penjol, despite losing more than N4 million per year, Kuensel continued to publish the Dzongkha edition due to its importance. However, financial difficulties forced Kuensel to lay off staff and reduce the frequency of publication.
In 2006, print media licensing was liberalized and five private Dzongkha newspapers emerged, namely, Bhutan Observer, Druk Yoezer, Druk Neytshuel, Druk Melong and Gyalchi Sershog, in an attempt to compete with the Dzongkha newspapers. Unfortunately, these newspapers struggled with lack of readership, advertising and financial viability, and most of them closed down within five years.
As the quality of Dzongkha education and journalism continues to decline, it becomes increasingly important for the government and stakeholders to take decisive action to preserve and promote the national language. “Without proper intervention, the rich cultural heritage and national identity associated with the Dzongkha language may be at risk of disappearing,” said Gembo Dorji.
Contributors
Lingjin Wangchuk
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