Department of Education Conducts Fifth and Sixth Online Training for North American Tibetan Weekend School Teachers

Washington D.C: On 6 December 2025, the Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration, successfully conducted the fifth and sixth online training sessions for primary and middle-level teachers of North American weekend schools, focusing on enhancing Tibetan language teaching procedure.

On that day, one training session was held from 9:00 am to 11:00 am (EST), followed by another from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm (EST). The trainings were conducted by former Senior Tibetan Teachers’ Mentor Mingchung, the General Secretary of the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) School.

The morning training session was attended by 40 teachers from the Ontario-based Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre, Boston, Wisconsin, Chicago, Connecticut, the Capital Area, Massachusetts, and the Maine Tibetan Community Association. The afternoon training session was attended by 15 teachers from the Tibetan Community of New York and New Jersey’s Losel Ketsel Ling Tibetan Weekend School.

Gedun Dhonyoe, Head of the Textbook Section at the Department of Education, and Kunga Tashi, Tibetan Liaison Officer at Office of Tibet in Washington DC, delivered brief introductory remarks at the start of the trainings. They also reiterated the guidance of the Education Kalon and Secretary, as well as by the Representative of the Office of Tibet in Washington, D.C., during earlier training sessions.

TCV General Secretary Mingchung provided primary and middle level teachers with in depth training on reading, writing, listening and speaking skills, drawing on his many years of teaching experience in real classroom settings. He also offered guidance on curriculum planning. During breaks and after the training, he answered teachers’ questions and provided further clarifications.

According to feedback received by the Office of Tibet, these six training sessions have been extremely beneficial for the weekend school teachers and have provided fresh inspiration.

Following the conclusion of the training, Dechen Dorjee, General Secretary of the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre in Ontario, sent a letter to the Office of Tibet, conveying the collective gratitude of all participating teachers to the Department of Education for organising the training, and to Passang Tsering and Mingchung for providing online sessions on teaching methodology to teachers from various Tibetan language and cultural schools. He also conveyed the participants’ collective suggestions, requesting for continuation of such training sessions in the future, that guidance be provided from time to time on how to utilise the teaching materials available on the Department of Education’s website, and that, if possible, in-person training sessions be arranged in addition to online sessions, as many participants felt this would be highly beneficial.

Expressing his deepest gratitude to all facilitators, trainers and participants, Representative Namgyal Choedup stated that these six training sessions were conducted following a unanimous decision at the 23rd annual conference of the North American Tibetan Associations, after which the Office of Tibet submitted a request to the Department of Education. Accordingly, the Department of Education arranged the trainings, and all weekend schools participated enthusiastically.

– Report filed by the Office of Tibet, Washington, DC