Education Challenges in Bhutan

Bhutan's education system has undergone a remarkable transformation since the introduction of modern schooling in the 1960s, when the country had fewer than a dozen schools and literacy rates below 10 per cent. By 2023, Bhutan had achieved near-universal primary enrolment (net enrolment rate of approximately 95 per cent), adult literacy had risen to approximately 72 per cent, and the country operated more than 600 schools and several tertiary institutions. However, beneath these aggregate achievements lie persistent and in some cases worsening challenges that threaten the quality, equity, and relevance of education — and which are increasingly recognised as central to broader socioeconomic problems including youth unemployment, emigration, and rural depopulation.^[1]

These challenges have been acknowledged by the Royal Government in successive Five Year Plans, by international assessments conducted with UNICEF and the World Bank, and in public discourse — particularly in the national newspaper Kuensel, where education quality and youth employment are among the most frequently discussed domestic policy issues. The Gross National Happiness framework, which positions education as a pillar of holistic development, demands that the system not only produce employable graduates but also cultivate values, creativity, critical thinking, and environmental consciousness — an aspiration that makes the gap between policy ambition and ground-level reality especially stark.^[2]

Dropout Rates and Retention

While Bhutan has achieved near-universal primary enrolment, retaining students through the completion of secondary education remains a significant challenge. The cumulative dropout rate from primary through higher secondary education has been estimated at approximately 30 to 40 per cent, meaning that roughly one in three students who enter Class I do not complete Class XII. Dropout rates are highest at the transition between primary and lower secondary (Class VI to VII) and between lower secondary and higher secondary (Class X to XI), where examination gateways function as exit points for students who fail to meet minimum marks.^[1]

The causes of dropout are multiple and intersecting. In rural areas, the distance from home to school, the cost of boarding, and the opportunity cost of removing children from agricultural labour all contribute. For girls, early marriage and social expectations, though declining, remain factors in some communities. For boys, the lure of unskilled wage employment — particularly in the construction sector — draws adolescents out of school. The quality of the school experience itself is a factor: students who struggle academically in overcrowded classrooms with limited learning materials and insufficient individual attention disengage and eventually leave. A 2019 UNICEF-supported study found that students who dropped out frequently cited "not understanding lessons" and "boredom" as primary reasons, suggesting quality deficits as much as economic factors.^[3]

Quality of Teaching and Learning

The quality of education delivered in Bhutanese schools has been a persistent concern, documented in multiple assessments. A national learning assessment conducted in 2019 found that a significant proportion of students in Class VI and Class X performed below expected proficiency levels in both English and mathematics — the two subjects that are taught in English (Bhutan uses English as the medium of instruction for all subjects except Dzongkha). The assessment revealed particular weaknesses in reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and scientific inquiry — higher-order cognitive skills that are essential for academic progression and employment but that the prevailing pedagogy, which relies heavily on rote memorisation and textbook recitation, does not effectively develop.^[1]

Classroom observation studies have noted that teaching in many Bhutanese schools remains teacher-centred, with limited use of interactive or student-centred pedagogies, laboratory work, project-based learning, or technology-enhanced instruction. The curriculum, while periodically revised, has been criticised for being overloaded, examination-oriented, and insufficiently connected to students' lives and the Bhutanese context. Efforts to introduce "Educating for GNH" — a pedagogical reform emphasising critical thinking, creativity, values, and contemplative practices — have had mixed implementation, with teachers reporting insufficient training and support to deliver the reformed curriculum effectively.^[3]

Teacher Shortages and Distribution

Bhutan faces both an absolute shortage of qualified teachers and a severe distributional imbalance between urban and rural areas. The student-teacher ratio nationally is approximately 24:1 at the primary level — broadly acceptable by international standards — but this average masks wide disparities. Schools in Thimphu and Paro may have ratios of 30:1 or higher due to urban population growth, while remote rural schools in eastern dzongkhags may have very low enrolment but struggle to attract and retain any qualified teachers, particularly in specialised subjects such as mathematics, science, and English.^[1]

Teacher attrition is a growing problem. The teaching profession in Bhutan suffers from relatively low pay (particularly compared with private sector and international organisation salaries), limited career progression, challenging living conditions in remote postings, and — according to surveys — declining social prestige. The government requires newly graduated teachers to serve in rural areas for a minimum period, but transfers to urban schools are highly sought after, and many teachers exit the profession entirely after their bond period expires. A 2022 parliamentary report noted that the education sector was losing approximately 200 to 300 teachers annually to resignation, retirement, and emigration — a loss that training institutions struggle to replace.^[4]

Education-Employment Mismatch

Perhaps the most consequential challenge facing Bhutan's education system is the widening gap between what the system produces and what the labour market demands. Youth unemployment has risen steadily, reaching approximately 29 per cent among 15-to-24-year-olds in 2023 — one of the highest rates in South Asia. The paradox is that this high youth unemployment coexists with significant labour shortages in sectors such as construction, agriculture, hospitality, and technical trades, which are filled predominantly by approximately 50,000 to 60,000 Indian migrant workers. Bhutanese graduates, particularly those with general arts degrees, are often unwilling or untrained for these positions, while the white-collar jobs they aspire to (in government, banking, and corporate offices) are insufficient in number to absorb each year's cohort of graduates.^[5]

This mismatch reflects deep structural problems in the education system: an overemphasis on academic streaming at the expense of vocational and technical pathways; a curriculum that does not adequately develop practical, entrepreneurial, or technical skills; and a societal prestige hierarchy that values white-collar desk employment over skilled trades, farming, and manual work. The result is a growing cohort of educated but unemployed youth who, faced with limited domestic prospects, increasingly choose to emigrate — primarily to Australia — creating a brain drain that compounds the very workforce shortages the education system should be addressing.^[6]

Technical and Vocational Education Gaps

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has historically been undervalued and underdeveloped in Bhutan's education ecosystem. The TVET sector is managed by the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (not the Ministry of Education), operating through a network of approximately 10 technical training institutes (TTIs) and vocational training centres offering programmes in construction trades, electrical work, automotive repair, hospitality, IT, and other applied fields. However, TVET enrolment represents a small fraction of the post-secondary cohort — approximately 3,000 to 4,000 students per year compared with over 10,000 in tertiary academic programmes — and TVET qualifications carry significantly less social prestige than university degrees.^[5]

The quality and relevance of TVET programmes have been criticised by both employers and international assessments. Training equipment is often outdated, instructors may lack current industry experience, and curricula do not always align with evolving market needs. Graduates of TVET programmes frequently report difficulty finding employment at wages that justify the training period, particularly given the competition from lower-cost Indian migrant workers in the same trades. The government's 13th Five Year Plan prioritises TVET reform, including upgrading facilities, improving instructor quality, strengthening industry partnerships, and implementing a national qualifications framework — but implementation faces funding constraints and institutional inertia.^[2]

Brain Drain of Educated Youth

The emigration of Bhutan's educated youth — particularly to Australia, where Bhutanese nationals can access student visas and post-study work pathways — has become a defining socioeconomic concern. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Bhutanese (from a total population of approximately 780,000) emigrated between 2020 and 2024, with the majority being young people aged 18 to 35 with secondary or tertiary education. This exodus represents a significant loss of human capital that the education system invested years in developing. Doctors, engineers, nurses, teachers, and trained technicians are among those leaving, creating workforce gaps in precisely the skilled occupations that Bhutan most needs to fill domestically.^[7]

The King himself has publicly addressed the emigration crisis, characterising it as a challenge that threatens the country's future. Government responses have included youth employment programmes, entrepreneurship support (the Loden Foundation's startup grants), expedited public sector hiring, and the Gyalsung national service programme — which, in addition to its nation-building objectives, is partly intended to instil a sense of purpose and commitment among young people before they make emigration decisions. However, as long as the fundamental economic calculation favours emigration — with wages in Australia five to ten times higher than equivalent Bhutanese salaries — education system reforms alone are unlikely to stem the outflow.^[8]

See also

• Education Challenges for Bhutanese Diaspora Children
• Integration Challenges of Bhutanese Refugees
• Bhutan's Food Security Challenges
• Bhutan's Rural Electrification Challenges
• Employment Challenges for Bhutanese Refugees

References

1. Ministry of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan. "Annual Education Statistics." education.gov.bt.
2. Gross National Happiness Commission. "13th Five Year Plan (2024–2029)." gnhc.gov.bt.
3. UNICEF Bhutan. "Education Programme." unicef.org/bhutan.
4. "Teacher shortage threatens education quality." Kuensel. kuenselonline.com.
5. Ministry of Labour and Human Resources. "Labour Force Survey Report." molhr.gov.bt.
6. "Youth unemployment: A ticking time bomb." Kuensel. kuenselonline.com.
7. "The Great Exodus: Why Bhutanese youth are leaving." Kuensel. kuenselonline.com.
8. "Youth emigration and the economy." The Bhutanese. thebhutanese.bt.