First Modern Schools in Bhutan

The establishment of Bhutan's first modern secular schools in the early 20th century, and their expansion into a nationwide system from 1961, represents one of the most consequential decisions in the country's modern history. Before 1914, all formal education in Bhutan was delivered through the monastic system, and literacy in any language among the lay population was extremely rare. The decision to build secular schools — first for the elite, then for all children — created the educated citizenry that would eventually govern a democratic constitutional monarchy.

The First School: Haa, 1914

School education in Bhutan began in 1914 with the establishment of Bhutan's first modern school in the Haa Valley, western Bhutan. The school was founded by Gongzim Ugyen Dorji — a trusted official of the First King — on the direct instruction of Sir Ugyen Wangchuck, who had been elected Bhutan's first hereditary monarch in 1907. Teachers came from the Church of Scotland Mission, working alongside a Bhutanese teacher named Karp. The school's founding reflected the First King's conviction that engagement with the British-Indian world required Bhutanese who could communicate and negotiate in English.

In the same year, forty-six Bhutanese boys were sent to study at the Church of Scotland Mission School in Kalimpong, in the Darjeeling hills, establishing the tradition of sending students to India for education that continued throughout the 20th century. A second school followed in Bumthang in 1915, initially serving the Crown Prince and the children of senior officials; Hindi rather than English was the medium there, and English was taught as a subject. By 1919–20, enrolment stood at 28 students in Haa and 21 in Bumthang — tiny numbers, but the beginning of something that would become universal.

These first schools served the children of the elite exclusively. Access to education was determined by family position rather than ability, and the curriculum was oriented towards preparing a small administrative class capable of dealing with India and the wider world. The idea that every child in Bhutan might attend school was not yet part of the political imagination.

The Third King and Mass Education

The decisive transformation came under the Third King, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, who ascended the throne in 1952 with a vision of Bhutan as a modern, self-governing state. The First Five-Year Plan (1961–66) placed mass education at the centre of the development programme. Schools were built in district capitals and, progressively, in sub-district centres; Indian teachers were recruited to fill positions that qualified Bhutanese teachers did not yet exist to fill; and the government committed to providing residential facilities for children who lived too far from a school to attend as day pupils.

English was chosen as the medium of instruction — a decision that the Third King and his advisers made on pragmatic grounds. English provided access to the global knowledge economy, enabled Bhutanese students to benefit from the vast body of technical and scientific literature, and connected Bhutan to the international institutions it was beginning to engage. The choice created lasting tensions with the promotion of Dzongkha, the national language, which was taught as a subject but competed with English for prestige and utility in the growing formal sector. These tensions remain alive in Bhutanese educational policy debates today.

Growth of the System

Subsequent Five-Year Plans continued the expansion. The National Institute of Education at Samtse was established to train Bhutanese teachers, gradually reducing the country's dependence on Indian staff. Sherubtse College in Kanglung opened in 1968 as the country's first institution of higher education, initially affiliated to Delhi University. By the 1980s, primary school access had reached most communities in the country; by the 1990s, the challenge was no longer building schools but improving quality and expanding secondary provision.

Gender parity in primary enrolment was achieved relatively early by South Asian standards, reflecting a consistent government commitment to girls' education. Secondary schools were established progressively in each district, and the construction of the east-west lateral highway enabled the integration of eastern districts — previously among the most educationally under-served — into the national system.

The Royal University of Bhutan was formally constituted in 2003, bringing Sherubtse and several specialist colleges under a single national university framework. International scholarships — particularly from India — enabled further cohorts of Bhutanese to obtain postgraduate qualifications abroad.

Legacy

The introduction of modern schooling within two generations produced a society that bears little resemblance to the pre-1961 Bhutan. The literate, English-proficient population that emerged from this system made possible both the democratic transition of 2008 and the country's engagement with the international economy. It also produced the structural challenges of an educated population seeking employment in an economy that cannot absorb all its graduates, and a generation increasingly connected to the global world in ways that generate complex tensions with Bhutanese traditional values.

See also

• Modern School System of Bhutan
• Mobile School at Bumthang (1915)
• Bhutanese Diaspora Language Schools
• Bhutanese Refugee Camp Schools
• First Hospital in Bhutan

References

1. Hirayama, Takehiro. "A Study on the Type of School during the Dawn of Modern Education in Bhutan." Bulgarian Comparative Education Society, 2015. ERIC/ED568679.
2. North Bengal University. "The Growth and Development of Modern Education in Bhutan (1907 to 1997)." Doctoral thesis. ir.nbu.ac.in, accessed 2026.
3. Haa Dzongkhag Administration. "Gongzim Ugyen Dorji Higher Secondary School." haa.gov.bt, accessed 2026.
4. Friedrich Naumann Foundation. "Bhutan: Overview and Transformation of Education in Bhutan." freiheit.org, accessed 2026.