By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, April 14: One of the oldest Tibetan schools, started as a nursery with just 51 children of road laborers in 1960, on Thursday announced the taking over of its presidentship by a new president, Mr. Thupten Dorjee, General Secretary of TCV Head Office.
Thupten will be succeeding Tsewang Yeshi who has stepped down from the presidential post after completing his tenure.
Tsewang Yeshi has completed his second five-year term this year, which was why, during the last governing body meet in Delhi, Thupten Dorjee was unanimously elected as the new President with 23 of 26 votes cast by 26 members of the governing body.
“It is a big responsibility to head a big institute consisting of around 10,000 students and over 1,400 staffs. The governing body members have unanimously trusted me with this responsibility. So, I am confident of accomplishing my duties as I have a great support from the governing body and the staffs here at the office,” Thupten said in his first media interaction since the appointment.
The outgoing president suggested, for the next administration, that the focus now should be made on improving the quality of the existing schools and also on how to improve scholarship assistance to the growing number of Tibetans studying in colleges and institutions.
“The declining enrollments and new arrivals from Tibet give us an opportunity to put more effort to improve the quality of education and facilities. The effort starts with our staff and we must improve the quality of existing staff through workshops and other means,” said Thupten Dorjee adding that he would focus on raising scholarships for students. As of today, TCV provides over Rupees 10 crore scholarship to more than 2000 Tibetan college students.
A formal handover would take place at Upper TCV school on April 21 with heads from all the TCV schools.
Tsewang Yeshi, former president took over the responsibility of TCV in 2006 after Jetsun Pema, fondly known as Ama La resigned after 43 years of service.
