Academics
Eight subjects, three languages, ten grades
Lamdon teaches the official programme of the Ministry of Education, and teaches Bodhi — the language of the valley — inside the same timetable.
12
classes: LKG and UKG, then Grades 1 to 10.
35 min
per class session, Monday to Saturday.
March — Nov
the school year, closing earlier or later with the weather.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
The curriculum
Mathematics runs the full length of the school, from counting in the kindergarten years to the Grade 10 examination syllabus. It is one of the subjects most closely watched in the final results, because it is the one that most often decides whether a student can continue into science streams outside the valley.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Science is taught to the national syllabus. Practical work has historically been limited by the absence of a dedicated laboratory on campus — the reason a separate insulated laboratory building was proposed for the school.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Bodhi is the language of the valley and of its religious texts. Teaching it inside the timetable is how the school keeps a modern curriculum from arriving at the cost of the language children speak at home.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Hindi opens the rest of northern India to students — administration, further study, work. For most Lamdon students it is a third language after Bodhi and English.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
English is the medium in which most students who continue their education outside the valley will be taught. It is carried from the kindergarten years onward.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Students study the standard syllabus in a place where geography is not abstract: watersheds, passes, monsoon shadow and altitude are visible from the classroom window.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Civic education carries particular weight in a valley where public services are thin and community organisation does much of the work that institutions do elsewhere.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Physical education is timetabled, not optional. The ground is bare earth, the equipment is simple, and the mountains stand at the edge of every fixture.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2022 · source · reviewed 2026-09
Grade 10
The Secondary School Certificate closes the school's course
Between 1999 and 2025, 476 students sat the Grade 10 Secondary School Certificate examinations at Lamdon. The certificate marks the completion of studies at the school; the majority of students go on to further education outside Zanskar.
AAZ's published material describes these results as ranking Lamdon the best school in Zanskar. That is AAZ's assessment of the record it documents, not an official ranking.
HISTORICALAssociation Aide au Zanskar (AAZ) — supporting organisation · 2026-02 · source · reviewed 2026-09
