Ministry of Education (Bhutan)

Ministry of Education under the Royal Government of Bhutan is responsible in formulating sound educational policies leading towards knowledge-based GNH society. It is mandated to provide equitable and inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all through provision of the necessary learning space and opportunity to harness their full potential as productive citizens. The Ministry of Education prepares the young women and men with appropriate knowledge, skills and values to cope with the challenges of the 21st century.

The Ministry of Education presently is focused on achieving the following Objectives:

1. To improve relevance and quality of education 2. To improve access to and sustainability of education 3. To strengthen youth development programme and services 4. To enhance adult literacy and lifelong learning 5. To ensure full utilization of budget 6. To enable effective and efficient ICT Service delivery.

Lyonpo Jai Bir Rai is the present Minister for Education. Under his leadership, the Ministry has embarked on significant educational reforms initiatives. Some of the initiatives include the following:

1. Establishment of 60 full-residential schools called central schools aimed at raising the quality of education especially for children who otherwise had to walk to schools for hours daily.

2. Reviewed the curriculum to align to the needs of the 21st century. The several changes in the curriculum are aimed at enhancing learning from the traditional rote method to critical thinking competencies.

3. Embarked on important initiative to raise the teacher competency and morale by creating a sustained strategy to provide 80 hours of professional development training every year to all teachers. The ministry also reviewed the teacher workload and decided to work towards engaging teachers for only 18 hours contact teaching a week. The ministry also embarked on an initiative to provide master's degree to teachers so that every teacher in the future would have a minimum of a Masters qualification.

4. Introduced drama and performing arts into the school program with the reintroduction of Shakespeare plays in the curriculum. A nationwide drama competition was initiated which culminated to the National drama festival.

5. Initiated fortified rice program in all feeding schools. The fortified rice which contains 8 minerals and micro neutrints benefits thousands of school children which is now targeted to reach all students in theo country.