Mobile School at Bumthang (1915)

The mobile school at Bumthang, established in 1915, was the second modern educational institution in Bhutan and one of the earliest attempts to introduce secular, Western-style education into a country where learning had been confined almost exclusively to monastic settings. Founded on the direct initiative of King Ugyen Wangchuck, the first hereditary monarch of Bhutan, the school was created primarily to educate the crown prince, Jigme Wangchuck, alongside children of officials and courtiers serving in the royal household. Its itinerant character — moving with the king's travelling court — gave it the distinctive designation of a "mobile school," a format without parallel in the broader South Asian educational landscape of the period.^[1]

The establishment of the Bumthang school, together with the slightly earlier school at Haa, marked the cautious beginning of modern education in a kingdom that had deliberately limited contact with the outside world. These early experiments in secular schooling would eventually evolve into the national education system that Bhutan developed over the course of the twentieth century.

Background: Education Before 1914

Prior to the opening of the first modern schools, education in Bhutan was entirely monastic. Boys entered monasteries and shedras (monastic colleges) where they received instruction in Buddhist philosophy, Dzongkha literacy, classical Tibetan texts, and ritual practice. There was no tradition of secular schooling, no formal study of foreign languages, and no instruction in mathematics, science, or other subjects associated with modern curricula. The country's deliberate isolation, maintained through strict controls on entry and exit, meant that the educational innovations spreading across British India and neighbouring kingdoms had made virtually no inroads into Bhutan.^[2]

King Ugyen Wangchuck, who had consolidated power as Bhutan's first king in 1907, recognised that monastic education alone would not equip the country — or his heir — to navigate an increasingly complex regional political environment dominated by the British Indian Empire. His agent to the British government, Gongzin Ugyen Dorji, a trader from Kalimpong who maintained extensive contacts with the colonial administration, shared this assessment and played a critical role in facilitating the introduction of modern schooling.^[3]

The Haa School (1914)

The first modern school in Bhutan was opened at Haa in 1914 on the command of King Ugyen Wangchuck, organised by Gongzin Ugyen Dorji. Teachers from the Church of Scotland Mission were recruited to provide instruction, alongside a Bhutanese teacher named Karp. The medium of instruction was Hindi, with English also taught. The Haa school represented the very first formal introduction of secular, non-monastic education into the country.^[4]

Establishment of the Bumthang School

In 1915, a year after the Haa school began operation, King Ugyen Wangchuck established a second school at Bumthang, his traditional seat of power in central Bhutan. Unlike the Haa school, which was a fixed institution, the Bumthang school was attached to the royal court and moved with the king as he travelled between residences — hence its characterisation as a "mobile school." The crown prince Jigme Wangchuck and seventeen other children were enrolled as its first students. A Sikkimese teacher named Phento was selected to instruct the pupils, with Hindi serving as the primary medium of instruction and English taught as an additional subject.^[5]

The itinerant nature of the school reflected the realities of governance in early twentieth-century Bhutan. The king did not maintain a single fixed capital but moved seasonally between residences in Bumthang, Trongsa, and other locations. By attaching the school to the court, the king ensured that the crown prince's education would not be interrupted by these movements, while also signalling the importance he placed on the new form of learning.

Curriculum and Enrolment

The curriculum was rudimentary by later standards, focusing on Hindi literacy, basic English, and elementary arithmetic — subjects chosen for their practical utility in enabling communication with British India, then the dominant external power in Bhutan's affairs. By 1919–1920, enrolment had grown to twenty-one students at the Bumthang school and twenty-eight at the Haa school, indicating modest but steady interest in secular education among the families of the court and local officials.^[6]

The choice of Hindi — rather than English or Dzongkha — as the primary medium of instruction reflected the practical linguistic landscape of the time. Hindi served as the lingua franca for trade and diplomatic communication between Bhutan and British India, and proficiency in the language was essential for the officials and traders who managed cross-border relations.

Legacy and Significance

The Bumthang mobile school occupies a significant place in the history of education in Bhutan. Together with the Haa school, it represented the first tentative step away from a purely monastic educational model and towards the secular schooling system that would expand dramatically under subsequent monarchs. Crown Prince Jigme Wangchuck, educated at the mobile school, went on to reign as the second king of Bhutan (1926–1952) and continued his father's efforts to modernise the country's governance structures.^[7]

The mobile school format was not replicated in later Bhutanese educational development; subsequent schools were established as permanent institutions. However, the concept of bringing education directly to students rather than requiring them to travel to fixed centres foreshadowed later efforts to extend schooling to remote communities across Bhutan's challenging mountainous terrain. The Third King, Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, would eventually establish a national education system with schools in every district during the 1960s, building on the foundations laid by his grandfather's pioneering experiments at Haa and Bumthang.^[8]

References

1. Hirayama, T. "A Study on the Type of School during the Dawn of Modern Education in Bhutan." Bulgarian Comparative Education Society, 2015.
2. "The Growth and Development of Modern Education in Bhutan (1907 to 1997 A.D.)." University of North Bengal.
3. "A footnote to the first chapter in the history of modern education in Bhutan." Bhutan News, 2014.
4. "Growth of Modern Education under Hereditary Monarchy." University of North Bengal.
5. Hirayama, T. "A Study on the Type of School during the Dawn of Modern Education in Bhutan." ERIC, 2015.
6. "School Education in Bhutan." Springer Nature.
7. "Ugyen Wangchuck." Wikipedia.
8. "School Education in Bhutan: Policy, Current Status, and Challenges." ResearchGate.