New Delhi, May 26 – It was a surprise. For the first time in nearly five years, the Central Tibetan Schools Administration (CTSA) saw 89.73 per cent of its students pass in the CBSE Class XII Boards.
Another first, which CTSA general secretary Dr N.S. Verma was proud of, was that the schools had been included as a separate group in CBSE. ‘‘For the last 42 years, schools under CTSA were always put separately. We had been requesting them to include us as an individual organisation,’’ said Dr Verma.
He said the pass percentage this year is higher. ‘‘We have a 100 per cent pass percentage in four of our senior secondary schools — Dalhousie, Mysore, Dehra Dun and West Bengal. We marginally lost out in the remaining four,’’ Dr Verma said.
Schools under CTSA have 9,057 students with 637 teachers. he said the topper is Tenzin Zomkey, a Humanities student of CTS Bylakuppe in Mysore (88.6 per cent). After Zomkey is science student Tenzin Youlo from CTS Mundgod in Hubli (74.8 per cent).
Dr Verma said Dorjee Dhondup from CTS Kalimpong scored 73.2 per cent, topping in the commerce stream. Sonam Choden of CST Mundgod topped the vocational stream (74.6 per cent).
CTSA schools, said Dr Verma, are older than the Kendriya Vidyalayas. ‘‘They were established in 1961 whereas KVS was set up in 1963. The schools were set up for Tibetan children so that their culture and heritage is preserved,’’ he said.
For this, CTSA has ensured that primary students are taught Tibetan instead of Hindi. All other subjects, he said, are taught in English. Students also have classes in Tibetan music, culture and heritage. ‘‘The schools have a teacher for music and religion,’’ he said.
There are a few independent Tibetan schools as well, like Sambota Tibetan Schools and Tibetan Children Village. These have their headquarters in Dharamsala. There is also the Tibetan Homes Foundation school in Mussorie.
