Last Updated on April 12, 2022 at 3:38 pm
There are some people in world that despite of having a pile of challenges in front of them are capable enough to break the pile and make a way out for them. One such example of comes from Ladakh who has put in engineering an educational and cultural movement in the region.
Sonam Wangchuk is an engineer who transformed how one can look at learning and education system. Wangchuk founded the Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) in 1988 along with a group of Ladakhi youth to re-engage Ladakhi students and help them complete their education. This movement brought a realistic approach towards education in Ladakh which led to a massive drop in failure rates of school students.
Wangchuk changed the educational system in Ladakh by bringing the skill-based learning which helped students finding a new ways to learn and soar towards better employability.
Wangchuk’s story also inspired Aamir Khan’s character of Phunsukh Wangdu in the film ‘3 Idiots’.
As per reports, Wangchuk knew that the education provided in the mountain region is not adequate enough to survive in the employment world. Thus, in 1988 Wangchuk got prompted and decided to build SECMOL.
SECMOL helps in guiding students who have failed in traditional schooling through counseling and experiential learning. It helped in encouraging skill based learning which helps students in every step of their lives.
Wangchuk believes that learning should be done not only by heads but by heart and calls this model as ‘bright head, skilled hands, and a kind heart’. This model helped students adapt many eco-friendly methods of learning as well such as eco-friendly mud structures to cooking food and managing the finances. The school acted as a support for the students who failed their board exam before enrolling in SECMOL and are now very successful in their lives.
