After graduation last year, I attended the acclaimed National Graduates Orientation Program. I had heard about people dressing their best and the potential of meeting your future significant other there (which I obviously didn’t!). However, I did not know what to expect about the actual program. Well… for those of you who have not attended it yet, let’s just say there’s not much to look forward to. It’s just a series of talk after talk after talk with the only break being lunch. That was practically all we did for an entire week, with the exception of a cleaning campaign and a mini concert at the end. It was just sitting there on the same seat every single day and only getting to talk to the people sitting next to you.
Don’t get me wrong, the talks were very interesting and useful but when listening is all you do for an entire week, you do tend to get bored. There were no activities, no games and no chances to get to know anybody. That is usually what an orientation in other countries consist of. However, in Bhutan just the idea of an orientation is literally just an orientation. There is no effort put into getting the ideas through to the audience in an effective way.
I’ve recently joined the Samtse College of Education and had a daylong orientation program about the college. This too, like the National Graduates Orientation Program, was just listening to speaker after speaker. I had just gotten to Samtse and I still had not settled into the environment. I had hoped that the orientation would make things more comfortable for me. However, the orientation strictly just meant business. It was only aimed at providing us the rules and regulations of the college. I do get that that is the main objective of the whole orientation program but I believe the idea could be communicated better if it was done through games or activities.
The orientation program that I attended at college in Texas or when I attended conventions elsewhere were completely different. The people were friendlier and there were a lot of icebreaker games included. The aim of the orientation, other than elucidating about the program itself, was also to make the students and members feel comfortable and safe.
I believe that the problem with Bhutanese programs is that we only focus on getting the job done. Since the main idea of the national orientation program is to get students ready for adulthood or a working life, the talks were mostly related to that. However, there was no work done to see whether the students were actually listening or whether the ideas got through to us. If the programs included more activities, people are bound to be more active and to understand the ideas more. Also, most people would think that icebreakers are a waste of time. However, icebreakers make the environment more comfortable for the members. People are more likely to feel relaxed and they can ask more questions or talk more. I also personally think that at a place where there are people of different backgrounds and different thoughts, more interaction should be encouraged to enhance integration of ideas.
Lastly, I mean no hate to any Bhutanese programs or anyone who has organized or is organizing such programs. I believe that we can grow only upon critiquing and knowing how to improve.