Education Policy in Bhutan: An Observation through the Lens of GNH and Sustainable Development

The word sustainable development and Gross National Happiness seem to be synonyms in the present context as many of the objectives of both the concepts are overlaps and similar. So in the context of Bhutan GNH policies are meant to achieve sustainable development. In the 1970s, the Fourth King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk announced “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product”. Since then Gross National Happiness [GNH] became the Bhutan's development guideline where development is holistic, comprehensive and sustainable. In 2008, GNH become an official national objective to pursue of wellbeing and happiness of citizen through implementing GNH index in county's development policies, plans and programmes. As Bhutan's development is based on GNH index that focuses on nine domains, out of which Education is one of the important domain where 7.5% of the government budget are allocated in this sector. Therefore, this paper seeks to assess the role of education for successful implementation of sustainable development in Bhutan.