No one argues about the significance of education. Education is empowerment and some says a social leveler but only if discourses are accessible and equal to everyone in learning and making the discourses itself. Growing up as a primary kid, most speeches of education officials and principals wouldn't end without mentioning that "Education is like an eye to see the world" and "A domain of knowledge is more important than a hundred pounds of gold" "ཤེས་ཡོན་འཛམ་གླིང་ བལྟ བའི་མིག་ཏོ་ཨིན།" "གསེར་བསྲང་བརྒྱ་ལས་ཡོན་ཏན་སྣ་གཅིག་དགའ།"
By that non-negotiable priority, Bhutanese are so fortunate to receive free basic education from the state. We have come very far in terms of educational development considering that we have started modern and mass education very recently. In every development plan, we have invested generously in education. However, today, there is emerging consensus that our education is plagued with complex and intractable quality issues amongst many others.
For some quite long period, I have been mulling over the question why is everyone concerned about the quality of education. While there may be so many latent and manifested factors behind, in my view, education issues have never received the attention it deserved. Besides the daily functions of the educational related institutions, there is no national ownership of the education. With many national executives having studied outside, the experience of studying in Bhutan is very limited and superficial. Most national decision regarding educational expenditure so far has been on infrastructure and other hardware component and not much on software and content of the education. Still today, our schools and principals elsewhere are struggling to meet basic needs such as classrooms, teachers, and even the stationaries for students. Thanks to resolute and innovative initiatives of some school principals, basic necessities are met for time being. They solicit supports from alumni and other generous donors through different means. At the personal level, I have contributed financially to my brother's school several times without any questions. The school administration was seeking support to buy basic items such as projectors, whiteboard, table cloths and for conducting meetings. Similarly, one of my alma maters too approached alumni to contribute for school stationaries for around 100 students and saw one former minister garnering support from alumni in contributing to his former school. From such, are schools contingent on the generosity of donors or meagre contributions done from parents? How is this sustainable? There must be targeted support for schools in urban areas and schools in rural areas. Is it calling for opening up the sectors to private sectors and ensuring a trust fund in the education sector to invest in basic necessities at least.
To exacerbate the quality issue, we as a nation have failed to keep education up to date with the changing time and technological advancement of the international standard. Instead, most executives and those who have means have enrolled their children abroad and organized a job market with a system and standards that is totally out of Bhutanese context. Perhaps, that is why the mismatch of skills with the market demand is in play. I cannot help posing few questions often. What would have happened to the quality of education if all of us have taken ownership? What would be circumstances if Dashos and politicians' children studied in Bhutanese schools? If most Dashos, politicians and policy makers have sent their children abroad, I guess wrong people are coming up with solution to address education quality in Bhutan. Do people have personal stake in national education system?
The education system calls for a comprehensive review, considering not only the infrastructure but also content, relevance and aligning with international standard.
