A Proposal for GNH Value Education in Schools

Karma Ura
A for GNH Value Education in Schools
A Proposal for GNH Value Education in Schools

Karma Ura
A Proposal for GNH Value Education in Schools

To be first published 2009 by Gross National Happiness Commission

© Dasho Karma Ura

 Excerpts from the Royal Address by
His Revered Majesty, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck,
at the 3rd Convocation of the Royal University of Bhutan,
Paro College of Education, 17 February 2009

―I am a firm believer that if there is one word that will stand out above all
other words when we describe our country‘s amazing journey of
modernization over the last few decades – it is Education. Our institutions,
our leaders of today – all of us – including me – are the proud products of the
Bhutanese Education System.
―…Our teachers will always be committed and dedicated teachers – our
students will always be diligent and loyal students – but it is the duty of
parents, policy makers and the government to put the right tools in their
hands – the right books, the right curriculum, and the right direction.

―...Contemplate! For what a grave mistake it will be to dream with great

optimism of taking our nation from this successful democratic transition into
a future of even greater success, without realizing that it is not us but our
children who must secure the success for the nation.

―…We always repeat what HM the fourth King once said, ―the future of our
nation lies in the hands of our children.‖ We must know that His Majesty, my
father, meant that quality of education for our young Bhutanese is of
paramount importance. And that is our duty as today‘s parents, leaders and
citizens to provide it…

―…Parents and teachers, I want you to know that as King my passion will
always be to nurture our youth, day after day, year after year – for it is their
skills, their labour and commitment to the country that will build our future.
There is no other path – no other tool – for Bhutan‘s future success.

―…Our nation‘s vision can only be fulfilled if the scope of our dreams and
aspirations are matched by the reality of our commitments to nurturing our
future citizens.‖
vi

Preface

Gross National Happiness(GNH) has now been included in the Constitution of the Kingdom
of Bhutan, where it states, ―The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will
enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.‖ Its pursuit is not optional, apparently, but
constitutional in legal parlance.

And GNH has occurred frequently in the Royal Addresses by His Revered Majesty. In his
address to the gathering of Bhutanese graduates of 2007, His Majesty the King again sharply
pointed out what the ultimate value of our country is. ―Today‘s world demands economic
excellence and I have no doubt that during our lifetime we will be working towards
building a stronger economy for Bhutan to further consolidate and secure our own future. In
doing so, no matter what our immediate goals are, I am confident that the philosophy of
GNH will ensure that ultimately our foremost priority will always be the happiness and the
well being of our people.‖

On another occasion His Majesty has referred to GNH as the ‗‘national conscience‘‘
underpinning our actions. As a result, we need to find the right tools for experimenting with
all the processes of decision making and policy decisions towards the realisation of GNH.

Among the many great initiatives of His Majesty, the educational reform he has launched
through the Royal Education Council is of tremendous consequence and acute timing.
Similar to his other speeches, the one delivered at the Convocation of the Royal University of
Bhutan, Paro College of Education on 17 February 2009, (quoted partly on page iv), he urged
the government and the people to take the issue of qualitative improvement of education
urgently.

In the context of GNH, the weaving of its inherent values into teacher training, classroom
teaching and textbooks is of vital importance.

I therefore welcome this opportunity to propose something on the value of an educational

framework at the behest of Gyaltshen Penjor and Tashi Wangyal of the Royal Education
Council. The original impetus to explore this issue given by them was bolstered by Hans van
Willenswaard and Wallapa‘s interest in the issue.

This article is therefore a beginning of a new focus on the complex task ahead to re-orient
education on values. I would like to thank Gyaltshen, Tashi, Hans, Jean Timsit and Ross
McDonald for their comments and inspiration. Also, Tshoki Zangmo, Karma Wangdi and
Sangay Thinley have given me invaluable research support. Many others, whose works I
have referred to, have contributed to the contents of the article.
Contents

Preface...................................................................................................................................................vi
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
2. Lessons from Abroad on Social Responsibility, Trust and Individualism .............................. 3
3. Findings from GNH Survey on Trust, Principles and Emotions .............................................. 5
4. Observation of Value Contents in 27 Textbooks ......................................................................... 9
5. Contestation between an Emerging World View vs GNH World View ................................ 18
6. Linking Societal Vision with GNH Values ................................................................................. 21
7. Values and Practice in Psychological Well-being Domain ...................................................... 25
8. Values and Practice in Health Domain ....................................................................................... 28
9. Values and Practice in Time Use Domain .................................................................................. 30
10. Values and Practice in Education Domain ............................................................................... 32
11. Values and Practice in Good Governance Domain ................................................................. 33
12. Values and Practice in Ecology Domain ................................................................................... 36
13. Values and Practice in Living Standards Domain ................................................................... 37
14. Values and Practice in Community Vitality Domain ............................................................. 38
15. Values and Practice in Culture Domain.................................................................................... 40
16. Four Channels of Imparting Values .......................................................................................... 42
17. Six Aspects of Moral Personhood .............................................................................................. 44
References ........................................................................................................................................... 46
 A Proposal for GNH Value Education in Schools
Karma Ura 21.5.2009

1. Introduction

For the education system to pay attention to values is central to our cultural
perspective that is influenced by Buddhism. The educator, the teacher (ston-
pa), is therefore completely involved in instilling the ethical maturity of
students.

I shall not give an account of what GNH is here; that is a separate issue. It‘s
only with regard to value education from a GNH perspective that I shall focus
on. Some readers may expect from this article a discussion on the concept and
measurement of GNH. However, they will not find it here.

I have put together my thoughts and those who are stimulated by reading and
listening to others on value education. To achieve this, I needed an empirical
grip on what is happening in this particular field in our schools. This could
have been done by examining schools, which are an interacting field of three
different parts: teachers, text book content and students.

I had no time to go to school class rooms to observe the situation directly with
regard to how value education is taught, if at all. I followed an indirect
method: I read most of the textbooks quite rapidly. One can argue that the
content of textbooks is central, indeed crucial, in influencing both the role of
teachers and students in value education, as textbooks are pivotal to both
teacher and student.

As a result, and with the help of researchers from the Centre for Bhutanese
Studies (CBS) – we went through about 3,800 pages in 27 textbooks taught
right across the social science subjects to get a unified perspective on what is
going on in the classroom. If there are some oversights or omissions in the
appraisal of textbooks used nationwide, may I be forgiven on account of the
breadth of reading.

The exercise was, however, invaluable in giving me an overall impression of

what is happening. How, exactly, these textbooks are translated into
classroom teaching is difficult to say; all those engaged in teaching would
know better.

I need not point out the ramifications of a poor curriculum. Unlike the
activities of public agencies affecting the people, the number of Bhutanese –
both students and teachers - directly affected by poor curriculum is the
2

highest. Both students and teachers can be negatively affected by poor

textbooks because they are bound by regulation to teach only what they are
provided with.

We are not the only country grappling with ‗‘value education‘‘. It seems that
value education is taught in all countries, but the vocabularies used to refer to
it are different. It is known as ‗‘moral education‘‘ in Japan, Korea and
European countries, and as ‗‘character education‘‘ in the USA. In other
countries it is known as ‗‘civic education‘‘, ‗‘citizenship education‘‘ or ‗‘ethics
education‘‘.

Some countries seem to be somewhat wary of the subject, while others are
more explicit. Although it is known by different names the endeavour is, in
essence, the same. Yet, globally there is a new emphasis on the importance of
a shift in values as a matter of great urgency, towards a shared aspiration of a
humane and happy society.

The simplest idea of value education is about creating the emergence of a set
of beliefs and attitudes as a person‘s character and personality unfold, so that
their beliefs will influence their behaviour and actions in a positive manner
and direction.

But the challenge is how deeply beliefs and attitudes can be planted and
retained in a developing mind, especially during the teenage years, when
things seem to be vague, confusing and subject to so much change and
influence.

In a deeper sense, there is no imposition of values from the outside. Value

education should be designed to help students to unfold and develop
themselves ethically and realise their ethical potential, despite the many
distractions during their early years in Bhutan - and especially in urban
Bhutan today.

At another level, it is about exploring common values that will help create a
positive future for all by first articulating values, and then determining how to
apply them to both our personal and collective conduct.

Value education can be made progressive according to the foundations of

Paiget and Kolberg‘s heuristics. In Kolberg‘s view, value education moves
from particular to formal thinking - as children grow up. Value education can
therefore be structured from a pre-conventional to a conventional moral
reasoning.

Although without a clearer prescription in terms of children‘s age

specification of moral development like Piaget and Kolberg, if the Buddhist
orienting framework is used, moral development would involve working on
 3

the development of emotional intelligence (I am using the modern jargon to

describe the oldest concern of Buddhism, i.e., overcoming unwholesome
emotions) through imagination or mental exercises.

The Buddhist approach of moral development places an acute emphasis on

reducing negative emotions to embrace inclusiveness and our relationship
with the community.

The transformation in a student‘s life is so huge and rapid that what he thinks
as important at age 10, may no longer apply at 15. Furthermore, on reaching
adolescence, the values a teenager may think are certain can soon become
confused and uncertain.

So, how can we make positive values not only clear but also as a fundamental
beacon of progression in children? This will not only involve the lessons in
value education in schools, but also the values we as adults transmit to our
children, which must be constantly demonstrated through our own actions,
decisions, emotions and behaviour. Parents must be examples.

Children and teenagers assimilate a great deal from the world outside the
school. Should their parents‘ values, emotions and behaviour be at variance
with what they learn in school, they will discover that we ourselves are at
conflict with the values that they are being taught to embrace.

The border between the behaviour of the adults and children is porous, and
adults‘ behaviour is bound to spill over and influence our children. As a
result, value education in school is only half the challenge. The other half is
outside the classroom.

2. Lessons from Abroad on Social Responsibility, Trust and

Individualism

It is difficult to ascertain whether character education has seriously been

taught in the U.S. The choice of US for reference is not systematic. It is
influenced by availability of reading material on the internet about the US.

It is contended that the values taught in the US in the last 50 years emphasised
individual rights, de-emphasised social responsibility and produced
psychological individualism. It might be a natural outcome of the segregation
of wisdom learning and secular learning in schools, which went hand in hand
with separation of church and politics.

In general, according to the criticism presented above, character development

in the US has emphasised individual rights, not directly but indirectly.
4

Because of tension between social responsibility and personal rights, it is said

that social responsibility has been muted.

Value education taught in the US over the last 50 years also produced
psychological individualism, which militates against altruism, against
community consciousness, and against social responsibility. As a
consequence, trust, commitment and altruism have been undermined. A
severe decline in the level of trust has also been reported over the last three
decades in the UK, attributed by research to the rise of excessive
individualism, in the Good Childhood studies. Children become suspicious of
other and treat them as competitors.

The impact of value education in Bhutan is not yet clearly evident. If the
direction is similar to that of the US, not only in the classroom but also in the
wider society, negative trends will impinge on the delicate minds of our
young children.

This tension may not be resolved in the minds of the students. The
consequences of excessive emphasis on personal rights, social responsibility
and psychological individualism will cause deterioration in the trust level
among members of society.

I highlight trust because it is crucial to the humanistic view of moral

education. Peaceful, human relations and helpfulness towards each other are
central factors in creating a contented society.

Another value I should underline is commitment, because it is vitally

important for the entire community and towards building a GNH society. The
level of commitment is said to have declined in the US. There is a
commitment to jobs and professional skills development, but these do not
hold a society together as much as the individual who may be in conflict with
the social goals.

What is necessary in value education is a process of expansion of our

boundaries of consideration and the caring consciousness of others, beyond
us, our friends and relatives.

If one believes in fundamental Buddhist value orientation, commitment to

values that restricts our narrow interests to a reasonable degree on the one
hand, and commitment to values that affirm welfare of all on the other, is
important.

A person‘s welfare is not achievable by him or her alone, but by pursuing

communal welfare and social goals. The foundation for a truly, happy society
can easily be eroded if the welfare of the community that underpins our
 5

profound interdependencies, disappears due to the wrong direction of value

education and other negative influences.

As Ross McDonald has remarked on an earlier draft of this paper, the early
data from the GNH survey indicate a certain decline in the collectively-
oriented values, and ‗a fairly sobering trend away from traditional
aspiration and towards a problematic separation of self from an
interconnected sense of mutual obligation. It is a trend of huge
significance for Bhutan and its potential to achieve a genuinely
harmonious happiness.‘

3. Findings from GNH Survey on Trust, Principles and Emotions

I wanted to find out if the trends in the US in anyway resonate with Bhutan.
What is happening in Bhutan at this moment in terms of values? Let us look at
some evidence from the GNH survey 2006-2007 carried out by the CBS.

This evidence is not related to school children in particular, but to the country
as a whole. Among the better-off sections in our society such as civil servants,
traders, shopkeepers, contractors, and businessmen the trust level is
comparatively low. This raises an important issue. Why is the trust level at the
lowest among the wealthiest elements in our society? Can we extrapolate
from this that unless we formulise a different path of development, wealth
creation will erode the level of trust in Bhutan? It is a very important question
that we must address.
6

By districts (dzongkhags in Bhutanese), trust level seems to be inversely

related to the economic development of a place. The level of trust in Thimphu,
the capital, is comparatively the lowest in the country. A large number of
students live and study in Thimphu: out of 160,000 students in the country,
Thimphu has the highest number. So, if they are embedded in this particular
social and cultural environment of low trust level, one can imagine what a
struggle it is for the students and for their parents to convince them to hold
the right values.

I have no evidence on the commitment level in our country. But I can present
indirect evidence on commitment in the chart shown above. One of the
numerous findings of the GNH survey of 2006-2007 was an assessment of
people‘s values with regard to themselves and with reference to others.

A comparative study of the two scores reveals that the self-reported

assessment for any value is much higher than the assessment of those values
that a respondent perceives is held by others. One way of interpreting this
 7

data is that an individual thinks that the society is moving in a direction he or

she does not want. The proportion of people who hold values such as
pleasure and freedom is the lowest compared to the proportion of people who
hold values such as family, responsibility, success, spiritual faith etc. About
80% of the people hold that friendship, compassion and generosity to be the
important guiding principles in their life. Most people perceive family and
responsibility to be of high importance.

I mentioned about the suspected deterioration of trust and commitment in the

US. We do not have supporting figures for Bhutan, but we do have data on
the prevalence of negative emotions - as well as positive emotions.

NB: TP=Thimphu, WP=Wangdi Phodrang, DG=Dagana,ST=Samtse, SJ=Samdrup Jhongkhar, TY=Tashiyangtse,

PG=Pemagatshel, ZG=Zhemgang, TG=Tashigang, TR=Tongsa, HA= Haa, GS=Gasa

The table shows the distribution of negative emotions across 12 districts.

Selfishness, jealousy and frustration are defined as negative emotions, given
that they represent other varieties of negative emotions well (by factor
analysis). The CBS surveyed about 14 emotions – both positive and negative -
in all.

A notable finding is that the prevalence of negative emotions is comparatively

highest in Thimphu and Wangdi Phodrang and lowest in Gasa, Haa and
Tsirang. A person cannot be altruistic and committed to the welfare of others
if he is steeped in negative emotions. The slope of the curves of negative
emotions is clear. This implies that if the structure of community, pattern of
socialisation and the nature of education are modeled on Thimphu, the other
area will almost likely follow Thimphu‘s example.
8

If Thimphu is replicated throughout the country through the creation of urban

planning, that has, up to now, been far from sophisticated, then the pattern of
negative emotions associated with Thimphu will be replicated. I show this
data for the whole country because we don‘t have any comparable empirical
findings for students.

We do have crime statistics for our country, if they can be taken - even
remotely - as a sign of declining values among the citizens. One of the indirect
associations people make with value education or character development is
that it is inversely related to juvenile crime. It could be contended that the
growth in the juvenile crime rate and delinquency is directly correlated to
poor value education. Surprisingly, police officials turned down the CBS
request to give juvenile crime data. However, I have some information for
crimes in general collected from various issues of Statistical Year Books of
Bhutan as the next best source.

According to Kuensel, the national newspaper, the level of crime has been
shooting up over the last three years. Police confirmed this verbally. Here the
chart shows the total number of crimes committed from 1987 onwards,
derived from Statistical Year Books. The trend is not so alarming; in fact, if it is
standardised by the population, the crime rate has not risen. Accurate census
figures only became available only after 2005 census. Data before this point in
are unreliable to estimate crime rates.
 9

In absolute terms, crimes committed against people have been always more
than crimes committed against property in any given year. This again is a
very interesting pattern. And it prompts questions. Antique crimes have no
predictable trend in this country: this may be due to their dependence on
demand from Taiwan, China, Europe or the US. It may also be due to
diversion of police attention to other forms of crime.

There has been a mild increase in the number of sexual offences over the
years. Nevertheless, that should be a cause of concern, given that victims are
mostly young females. There is also an element of under estimation in this
area of recording. The GNH survey confirmed that the reporting of sexual
victimisation and domestic violence can be underestimated. The self reported
confirmations of sexual victimisation and domestic violence are lower than
the perception of incidences of these crimes among others.

In any case, there cannot be a direct correlation between these crime statistics
and value education. Criminals reflected in crime statistics were usually above
18.

4. Observation of Value Contents in 27 Textbooks

How can value education be taught? In principle we can have both teacher or
text book focus. It is theoretically possible. But both teacher and text book
focus doesn‘t apply to Bhutan. There is teacher focus, but no textbook focus in
countries such as South Korea. Only certified teachers are allowed to teach
moral education in South Korea. I couldn‘t carry out further research on
whether other countries are doing similar things as South Korea. In our
country, there is neither teacher nor textbook specialisation on value
10

education. Every teacher is broad based in a way; every teacher attempts to

teach value education as long as the textbook contains passages related to it.
Hence, examining textbooks for their value contents becomes important.

HOW DO WE TEACH VALUE EDUCATION?

Teacher Specialization in Value Education
Text Book Specialization in

Yes No
Value Education

Yes ? ?
South
No Korea
Bhutan
11

Whether we have value education or not, John Dewey said that education is
not value neutral. There is a hidden value education, according to him; it‘s just
a question of what kind and to what degree it exists. The hidden value
curriculum, he claimed, exists in the systems of symbols, disciplinary codes,
hierarchy, ceremonies, and rituals that heighten a pupil‘s collective identity
and values. The atmosphere of any school is thus not neutral. But equally,
there is a view that those who design value education also cannot be free from
values themselves.

How do we teach value education in our country? As we have seen, it is

dispersed and scattered in textbooks. In order to teach value education we
need to know the value content of the text books being taught. This point is no
great surprise to educationists, but for those outside the Bhutanese education
system, I suppose the chart below, presenting a matrix of classes and various
textbooks that apply to each class, is informative.

I looked at textbooks from classes 4 and 6. Two subjects - Dzongkha, the

national language of Bhutan, and English - are present throughout the
hierarchy of our education system.

‗Social Studies‘ is a single book, though of different standards for each class,
from classes 4, 5 to 6. I mention this because all of them carry lessons related
to value education. As a student reaches classes 7 and 8, ‗Social Studies‘ is
split into three subjects: Geography, History, and the Earth and People.
Geography and History goes on upstream from classes 7 to 10, but Earth and
People divides into Economics and Civics.
 11

In Science, there is a general textbook from classes 4 to 8 but from class 8, it

divides into Physics, Chemistry and Biology. In addition, Indian Economics is
being taught. I am intrigued on why it is continued in our education system. It
is relevant for knowledge, just as the study of economics of all other SAARC
regions is relevant, but students have limited time, and choices have to be
made as to what subject is best for Bhutanese students.

The choice is whether students want to study Indian economics or whether

they want to divert their time to another subject such as mathematics or
science.

Class Dzo Eng Social Studies Science

4, 5, 6

Class Dzo Eng Geo Earth & Hist Sci

people
7, 8

Class
9, 10
Dzo Eng Geo Eco Civics Hist Phy Che Bio

All of these textbooks have value education sections. These 27 textbooks were
read rapidly to glean information on the value education they contain. There
may be other things being taught, which were not reflected in textbooks but
―What is not published has not happened at all,‖ as someone said. So we need
to focus on the actual evidence.

I have drawn several conclusions from reading them. The expected areas
related to moral and social character are present in our textbooks by being
woven indirectly into narratives, stories and biographies. This is usual in
designing value education delivery. The question is to what degree it is
present.

Values such as social conformity and respect for hierarchy are emphasised. In
fact, hierarchy is emphasised too much, in the sense that there seems to be an
excessive detail about high post holders such as dzongda (district
administrators), thrimpon (judges), ministers and their ceremonial attire like
kabneys (scarves).

In my opinion, the textbooks have built up the importance of civil servants

excessively in the eyes of students. These details are not so crucial or
necessary, in my view. Bureaucrats and politicians are not the only ones who
12

are patriotic and are not the only objects of moral learning. In fact, going by
news reports, as well as the perceptions of the people covered in the GNH
survey, they are not the most respected members in society, in contrast to the
textbooks‘ portrayal of them. Textbooks should not be the space where
politicians and bureaucrats should enjoy such prestige in the eyes of the
students. It is also unfair to present them as more patriotic or upright then
people from other walks of life.

I think that in building up their image in the eyes of students, even if it is

desirable, there is no reasoning given in textbooks about why we even want
conformity. There is nothing on that at all; it is all descriptive. This criticism
on description without reasoning applies to other topics. On one hand, there
is a great deal of recurrent emphasis on festivals and national holidays. On the
other hand, there is no explanation on these in relation to values. With regards
to tradition, traditional games and sports appear frequently in textbooks,
dispersed in subjects such as Geography, History and Social Studies.

Personal hygiene is emphasised in the lower primary school textbooks.

Although this is necessary, more complex issues could be taught as students
climb up the education ladder. A simple example can be why water is dirty
and polluted; it is dirty and undrinkable because someone or some
establishment is polluting it upstream. That way we can get into various
economic and industrial issues to understand why water becomes polluted.
But nothing of this sort appeared in any textbooks that were reviewed.
Structural issues and causal linkages were avoided.

Similarly, while giving lessons related to the environment, say, mining as a

contributory cause of river pollution, it is not discussed. There are some
sporadic discussions on the harmful impacts of tobacco and alcohol, but again
the issue fails to be embedded in some larger idea of why people become
addicted. Not only individuals, but an industry of intoxication is involved.
Alcohol consumption is presented as an individual problem, yet there are
bigger causal agencies like distilleries and bars, which are directly involved in
the abetting and aiding of addiction for commercial reasons.

The point is that if there were no production and distribution on a commercial

scale, there would be far less consumption. In all coverage of harmful
substances, there is no morally engaging discussion that would bring to the
surface ethical choices.

Stories based on mythologies and morals, and on Buddhist principles such as

compassion and generosity are present, but textbooks do not give students
any techniques or training on ways of increasing their motivation. Not even at
class 10 level. As a result, the discussion on values remains poor and
underdeveloped. So it has been, in a way, just a delivery of jargons.
 13

Mutualism, which is a businesslike approach (you help me, I help you, and
often you help me more than I help you), is covered quiet strongly in
textbooks in various subjects. Another area - reciprocity and exchange - is
particularly emphasised, especially with respect to parents. With respect to
the monarchy, it could be advocated in a stronger and clearer way given the
centrality of this institution. Parental repayment of kindness is sharply
focused, but again it cannot hold the students‘ attention deeply because there
is no grounding of this concept in moral argument. The delivery of the
vocabulary is much stronger than the conceptual explanation. Why do you
have to be grateful to your parents, elders or the community at large? On this
there is not a single paragraph. So, the area of logical reasoning is simply not
addressed.

From the GNH point of view, gratitude, where it is deserved, is a positive

sentiment to be used with respect to the monarch and parents.

Meanwhile, more complicated concepts like merit and karma are well covered.
Rebirth is asserted in History and Social Studies, but as I mentioned before, no
conceptual grounding in these ideas is offered. I do admit that although it is
the most complex part of Buddhist teachings - and one cannot understand it
easily - it is often included. It is necessary to supply better arguments, which
can be rational and logical, such as those presented by Vasubhandu (lopen
Yignyen).

In providing some biographical sketch for historical figures, who are also
philosophical and religious figures, there is an excessive focus on their
magical aspects. But the magical aspects have to be contextualised in terms of
Vajrayana‘s technical aspects of Buddhism. Otherwise, it is not
understandable; it will be like a Theravadan trying to understand Vajrayana:
it is not easy to grasp. Some intermediate steps are missing. Pema Lingpa,
Phajo, Zhabdrung Rinpoche, and similar kinds of figures are presented in that
way. This, I think, carries a great risk. Textbooks have to present them within
the Mahayana framework.

Tantrism focuses on direct efforts, on the whole person, on energy, on

symbolism and on the idea that samsara is equivalent to nirvana. At least
textbooks have to lay the context for understanding Vajrayana figures. Take
one mistaken lesson in one Social Studies textbook. Students are asked to take
five scenes on Tertoen Pema Lingpa‘s ter extraction in Mebartsho and act
them out. This is bizarre, because a student cannot enter that magical world
and cannot be expected to simulate jumping into the river to find something.
The pedagogy is wrong. That is the danger of handling such issues in a trivial
way, without any deeper grounding. There are also mistakes with reference to
the Pemalingpa, suggesting inadequate grasp of his biography. Similar
14

criticism applies to key references like Sindhuraja, Guru Rinpoche, and so

forth.

It might be better to focus on philosophical and ethical ideas in a more

simplified form at the lower levels and then advance toward the higher
ground. However, it is remarkable that stories and folktales, in which
individuals and animals benefit and contribute to human welfare, are
encompassed.

Also, clear examples associated with Ashoka and Buddha are included. If
textbooks are presenting them as people possessing ethical and spiritual
qualities of Bodhisattva for today, it poses a problem of whether they can be
understood, especially at the lower level. At the higher level, people have a
more complex view of the world. Yet these are not examples of moral figures
people will really emulate today. So, presenting them as moral figures will be
a bit too elusive and demanding. I would not like to copy Ashoka for I have
no institutional power unlike monarchs, ministers and secretaries. As for
Pema Lingpa, we live in a world largely different from Pema Lingpa‘s. So we
can‘t copy him either.

More pertinent issues need to be considered while portraying moral idealistic

figures for students. Just as an example, who the Buddha is and what he
taught are two entirely different questions, and very different questions in
different principles vehicles of Buddhism; we could do more on the ethical
and moral relevance of his teachings in schools. In that regard, schools should
be introduced to the key concepts of the teachings of Mahayana such as
boddichita, the boddhisattva path, principle of interdependencies and non-
intrinsic self (emptiness), and skillful means.

Students, like other people, have two types of memories. One is how things
work requiring development of reasoning and logic. The other is to pick up
and remember names and dates. I have learnt so many things and, equally, I
have forgotten so many things. I may now know only 10 percent of what I
learnt. That is declarative memory - to remember dates, people, and names of
places.

There is too much emphasis on acquisition of declarative memory by

students. Textbooks should be designed to ask less of the mechanical storage
of names and dates to wean students away from rote-learning. But how to
reason morally or ethically is taught less at this time. It may be fair to argue
that one can‘t teach this to primary school children; they need to be taught in a
different manner. After class 4 or 5, however, students should graduate
towards moral reasoning to deal with existential problems; and on how to
approach moral dilemmas. Though there is an abundance of folktales,
biographical sketches and mythologies in textbooks, they do not lucidly
 15

present moral dilemmas. Good and evil dichotomies are drawn too quickly.
Textbooks have to challenge students to think how they would resolve moral
dilemmas according to values. In presenting the predicaments of real life,
stories could be better selected. Stories jump immediately to classifying things
into black and white, right and wrong.

The progressiveness of value education over the classes is largely absent. In

the lower classes, students should be learning do‘s and dont‘s, but that has to
change to introduce the concept of right and wrong later. At the final stage,
universal values have to be taught. All along, how values are expressed in our
culture should be made clear.

Inversion of standards occurs very frequently. For instance, some complex

ideas sometimes appear in the textbooks of the lower classes whereas they
should appear in the upper classes. Meanwhile, some basic things occur in the
textbooks of higher classes. This reversal of standards occurs quite frequently.
This suggests that there is no central consciousness (a master mind who has a
complete and overall view of all textbooks), behind the textbooks.
Educationists have to assume that an individual from age six to age 15 is on a
path of improvement, and he or she must be encouraged and motivated to
ascend the mountain of knowledge without going over the same ground
again.

Kohlberg, Piaget or Buddhist moral development theories may help in

structuring the progression of standards in value education. Bear in mind that
if educationists apply Kohlbergian or Piagetian ideas of moral development
for evaluation, individuals brought up in Buddhist moral structures could
underscore in Piagetian and Kohlbergian assessment. This happens because
self-esteem and competitiveness, for example, are under-emphasised for good
reason in Buddhist character development.

In value education, we can‘t escape from Buddhist influences in Bhutan. Most

of our value education will be underpinned by Buddhism. If one believes in it,
one might want to structure it according to Buddhist ethical development.
Buddhist concepts may be unfolded gradually, like a variegated carpet as a
student advances through the classes. Moreover, the key concepts of
Mahayana like compassion, non-intrinsic existence, interdependencies and
ethical training schemes built around ethics, meditation and wisdom are
convergent with universal human development.

There is an over- emphasis on adhering to the current law in textbooks. This is

conventional and expected, but at a certain point there is a need to distinguish
between law and morality. Law is not always moral and vice versa. Law is a
medium, not a value in itself.
16

In a few cases, the standards are haphazard. There is no progression, as

mentioned earlier. The gradient in Dzongkha and English for classes 3 and 4 is
too steep, seen from the next lower level. In my opinion, Dzongkha for class 9
is tougher than Dzongkha for class 10, though others‘ assessment might differ
from mine. Its effect may be noticeable in examination results. More students
may be failing in class 4 Dzongkha. We might want to test this statistically.

In many Social Sciences, Economics, and Geography textbooks, there is a lack

of precision of language and concept. These deficiencies come out as odd
expressions, of which I have made copious documentation in a separate
compilation titled ―Samples of typos/odd expressions, dates information, and
text related to value contents in 27 textbooks‖.

There are too many irrelevant asides in Civics and History. Histories of the
19th and 20th century are taught in classes 9 and 10. They are loaded with
details and asides that are not relevant for schools. For example, the treachery
of Uma Deywa, a ruler of Bhutan, mentioned in a book is not relevant to the
main line of the story. It is relevant only if an individual is doing research to a
certain depth and detail. To enable students to see the whole picture,
textbooks should not be laden with such details. They should deal with the
main focus of the narrative.

In general, textbooks have been reprinted many times since 1992. Three
reprints for Geography was the minimum and 11 reprints for Social Science
for class 4 was the maximum. The last reprint for Social Science textbooks was
done in 2007. But no major improvement has taken place since the first print
and there has been no review of errors; reprints were done in a mechanical
way. In this respect, the School Curriculum Division of the Ministry of
Education could have been a little more discerning.

The final conclusion is that revisions are needed in Social Science, Geography,
History, Civics and Economics textbooks. These are areas I am familiar with
because of my background. I am not able to suggest anything new in Science
textbooks other than to make one observation. In the lower classes, Social
Science textbooks assume the provision of laboratory equipment. In the
absence of equipment, which is a well-known constraint, it provokes curiosity
as to how they cope. A lot of imagination on the part of students and teachers
must be involved to compensate for the lack of equipment.

Civics is understandably now outdated. Since 2007 the system of government

has changed structurally and institutionally and therefore Civics must be
revised quickly. Surprisingly, the textbooks in Economics also are obsolete.
Information stops in 8th Five Year Plans (FYP‘s) in Economics textbooks. Our
students are learning things about 7th and 8th Five FYPs. Many things have
changed in 9th and 10th FYPs. The School Curriculum Division has had no
 17

time to revise Civics to keep up with events, but in Economics, the amount of
outdated information is surprising. Most case studies in Economics are from
Kuensel issues from 1995, the year the textbook was probably written. Case
studies culled from Kuensel are 12 years old.

For instance, the town of Tsimalakha is depicted in Economics as it was in

1995. The transport service characterised is similarly dated. The job prospects
and manpower situation described are equally outdated, having been drawn
from an old projection by Royal Civil Service Commission. If we intend to
prepare students for the real world of work, serious amendments are needed
in Economics, Civics and History. Too much irrelevant data is being loaded
on to our students. For example, the concept of 18 dzongkhags in our country
is still present in one textbook. A great deal of rewriting work awaits the
School Curriculum Division, the Royal Education Council and the Ministry of
Education in this respect.

Finally, I have quantified mistakes found in our textbooks, which is a

byproduct of checking for value content in the course of reading 148 chapters
out of 176 chapters very quickly. I cannot be sure that all the mistakes were
caught. The total number of pages read was 3,743 and 568 errors that include
typos were found in those pages. They do make huge difference. Sometimes a
mistake changes the meaning of the sentence completely. On average one
mistake appears every six pages. That comes to about 20 errors in every
textbook. If we focus on the rate of typo mistakes the density of errors occur
more in English, Science and Social Studies textbooks.
Typo/Odd or
unclear Value related Pages
Class Subject expression text reviewed
4 Composition and Language (Dz.) 7 7 92
4 English 85 15 322
4 Science 28 4 194
4 Social Studies 47 42 128
5 Composition and Language (Dz.) 7 9 103
5 English 18 18 240
5 Social Studies 80 39 154
6 Composition and Language (Dz.) 3 8 118
6 English 27 25 262
6 Science 5 10 133
6 Social Studies 7 43 118
7 Composition and Language (Dz.) 6 13 192
7 English 23 57 206
7 Geography 18 5 69
7 History 18 0 16
8 Composition and Language (Dz.) 15 14 224
8 English 46 18 224
8 Geography 47 9 113
18

Typo/Odd or
unclear Value related Pages
Class Subject expression text reviewed
8 History 14 1 107
9 Reading and Literature (Dz.) 2 19 153
9 Language and Grammar (Dz.) 1 16 83
9 Civics 8 4 24
9 English 10 34 132
9 History 28 0 20
10 Language and Grammar (Dz.) 0 19 100
10 Reading and Literature (Dz.) 2 192
10 Economics 13 0 26
Total 565 429 3745

There are a large number of texts related to value education: 429 episodes in
148 chapters. In terms of value content, the breath of issues or episodes
covered is adequate. But it is how conceptually clearly one can deliver value
education that needs improvement. If it is dispersed and vague, neither
students nor teachers will able to draw conclusions.

5. Contestation between an Emerging World View vs GNH World View

I now come to the proposal part, after the empirical investigation of textbooks.
The parallel between the advent of Buddhism in ancient India and today‘s
Bhutan at the broadest level is quiet interesting, drawing on from studies
elsewhere.

We in Bhutan now face a sudden transformation and dislocation, bringing

value and community disintegration at this conjuncture in our history.
Transformations in our country are notable in terms of the structural change
of society, people leaving the relatively well-ordered and stable environment
of villages to settle in towns and undertake new occupations; the emergence
of commercial corporations and entities that were not comparable to anything
seen from the perspective of village as an institution; the expansion of
bureaucracy and law to regulate hitherto unregulated aspects of life; the
politics of institutionalised divisions like the two parties, and various main
branches of governance, and so forth. Accompanying all of these is a new
sense of individualism.

Not all people think karma and social responsibility are important. I mention
these two issues in one sentence to underline the point that a person‘s karma
can hardly improve without commitment to social responsibility. How can
one stock up merit and good karma unless one earns it through contribution
 19

to society? I would think that enlightenment is collective, in the sense that a

person cannot advance ethically alone without affecting others positively.
Moreover, the motivation behind any social action, if we are to emphasise a
Buddhist ethical point, has to be intrinsic, not for social prestige or other
instrumental purposes.

In Buddha‘s time, societal transition was marked by the advent of the Iron
Age, but now we are directly moving towards the information age in our
country, in which attention is the ultimate resource.

Bhutan did not go from agriculture to the basic, chemical, manufacturing

stage and from the basic manufacturing stage to the consumer goods
manufacturing stage. We also did not pass through the consumer goods
manufacturing stage to the high-tech manufacturing stage - and thence to the
information age. We have gone from cement and ferro alloys production, and
vegetable oil packaging (palmomein oil was imported from Singapore and
Malaysia, repackaged and exported to India in recent years), straight to the
information age.

In the information age, attention is first seized and manipulated through

commercials, entertainment and propaganda from both overseas and local
sources. And then, those who wish to convince an individual as a consumer is
able to do so. The skills and organisations necessary to produce new goods as
opposed to individualised or household production like textiles, except
agriculture commodities, have not been sufficiently cultivated.

However, some of the major agricultural commodities are already in decline

primarily due to substitution by cheaper imported goods. Imports of rice and
wheat not only displace domestic production of these cereals, but also other
cereals because these imports are substitute foods for millet and maize. As a
result, one of major reasons of change has been the transformation of
Bhutanese into consumers, at the expense of their role as producers, in the
information age.

The other feature of our age is population increase. Globally, this crowding of
the earth is a very significant new phenomenon that will affect Bhutan in
unexpected ways. The rise of climate change refugees, suffering from
displacement and hunger due to altered weather patterns in the next few
decades in the coastal regions like Bangladesh, should be truly worrying.
Bhutan‘s population has been increasing for the last four decades. The risk of
climate change will be compounded by the phenomenal rise in population
movement in South Asia.

In my opinion, our population will stabilise contrary to official estimates, by

2018. Nevertheless, urbanisation will not stabilise unless a conscious, different
20

effort is made in our five year plans. There is no discussion about this at all at
the moment. There will be a huge dislocation if urbanisation is accepted as a
fait accompli as it is now, projecting as inevitable that 70% of the Bhutanese
will live in urban areas by 2050, with huge negative consequences, including
farming.

Against these large scale changes taking place in our country, what happens
to the emerging world view eventually impinge on our values. There is no
space here to discuss this in any detail, but a summary is relevant. It provides
the basis for certain arguments for understanding the underlying worldview.
If the government, the bureaucracy and the business community, the groups
who drive the direction of society, hold a certain world view, it will be
reflected in the policies or major decisions affecting the country. Together,
these three groups are the main source of any new direction; their world view
matters immensely. How their world view can be aligned with GNH is
crucial.

At an official level, GNH is about removing obstacles of public nature to

collective happiness through policies, programmes and associated public
expenditure. Because official actions create conditions either for or against the
success of society‘s striving for contentment, government decisions and public
expenditure, which is at present about 25% of GDP, are vitally important.

A dominant theme in the emerging worldview is that free trade, foreign

investment and the free market, all of which lead to very open economy, is
desirable and that official policies must be aligned with this trend.

As Michael Sandel has shown, the world view has its origin in the idea that
the market approach is best, and the role of the government is to address
market failure, by simply mimicking the market. On the other hand, the recent
failure of the financial market at the heart of such a world view, should be a
reason to cause serious doubts.

At the other extreme, this particular world view that is dependent on, and fed
by free trade and foreign investment, may make social and economic
democracy difficult to attain, as Eric Hobsawn has indicated in the context of
Europe - but equally relevant to a country like Bhutan. These aspects of the
worldview are also expected, though it seems very ambiguous to me, to help
Bhutan solve many problems including the lack of capital, technology, know-
how and unemployment.

There is a tendency to think of these factors as solutions to problems, while

giving up indigenous thinking on how to resolve them in any substantial way
within our own social, political and economic context. If a government
implements all these standards - neo-liberal prescriptions - the consequence
 21

will be that one can hardly claim the identity of Bhutan and GNH, while
emphasising dominant views and ideas such as the free market exactly like
others. This world view will gradually influence the whole environment.

If one espouses standard prescriptions all the way, then the inclusion of GNH
values in textbooks would be an anachronism. We should not propose value
education of the type we have been attempting, or reinforce it in the way I am
suggesting in terms of GNH. The two approaches don‘t match, and the
underlying tension calls for a fundamental platform of clear thinking and
position. The crucial issue of an appropriate economic strategy and GNH has
not received enough attention so far. This, I hope, I can take up in a separate
paper exclusively devoted to it.

6. Linking Societal Vision with GNH Values

If educationists want the concept of GNH society as a goal in our textbooks,

we have to clearly outline the ideal state or the future that is best for Bhutan.
In other words, we need a ‗destinational‘ vision.

In planning for the future, one must first look at how we want the world to
look in terms of valued outcomes, and then at how we must be and act in
order to proceed towards this goal. We have to clearly outline what we want
with respect to key elements in society, sector by sector, dzongkhag by
dzongkhag, Five Year Plan by Five Year Plan. We should not continue as we
have been in the way textbooks are written, nor should we proceed as we
have done in socio-economic planning, describing the current situations and
then trying to think of incremental changes.

On the contrary, we have to create a clear outline of our vision: that is what
we mean by not moving from the present situation to the future, but using
reverse engineering from our ideal dream state to the contemplation of actions
in the present time.

At the same time, this approach leads us to the distinction between – what
value theorists like Milton Rokeach would define as the ‗‘instrumental and
terminal values‘‘ respectively - or Weber as the ‗‘instrumental and substantive
modes‘‘ of moral thinking. We have to focus on what sort of values we must
create in our students to realise our vision.

As a consequence, this approach will make much of the information now

displayed in the current textbooks obsolete. For instance, students should not
be made to understand what is going on in Tsimalakha potato marketing,
Druk Air or any other sub-sector at present, which is best left to requirements
22

of general knowledge on current affairs, but which take up substantial space

in current textbooks.

We must try to marry Buddhist values inherent in our society, which I don‘t
believe will ever go against the values needed for the 21st century. However,
we are in danger now, if one takes a global overview, of facing serious trouble
(I take this issue in my paper on economic strategy and GNH). The current
economic system might break down in 50 years due to climate change,
population rise, resource scarcity, migration etc.; it cannot go on as it has been
over the last half century.

So, we should take into account the predictions and theories about the future
to advocate practicing GNH in order to arrive at a common, global future of
sustainability, peace and happiness. With respect to each domain, values are
outlined along with specific practices to express those values. Further, four
broad methods of value education will be suggested. All of these
recommendations require the rewriting of several textbooks.

We may prefer to amend our textbooks instead of rewriting to cut costs, but
it‘s not impossible to rewrite for a small outlay. For a good textbook, someone
who is really committed and devoted could achieve this in six months or less.
The textbooks must then undergo trial in the classrooms before being
certified.

Usually one finds a cluster of phrases with regards to universal values such as
the examples shown in the next chart. But what makes us who we are is the
particular traits due to our history and culture. Our textbooks on value
education therefore have to also address the particular values of Bhutan,
which are positive, while foregoing those that appear obstructive towards
ethical progress. The direction should be from the particular to the universal
and not from the universal to the particular. Particular values have to be
imparted because the particular is the foundation that gives us a real identity
and culture.

GNH is the developmental philosophy of our country and so the values that
are contained in it must be reflected in textbooks. There must be
correspondence and coherence between these two: values and visions to be
mutually supported by the other.

But in doing so, we will face criticism. Some people will contend that
textbooks should be value neutral because we live in a democracy. Those who
favour such views may go so far as to say that schools should not promote
values, not because values are not needed per se, but because they cannot
agree on them. This will be deregulation of values, in free market parlance.
Each value is a priority from an individual or group‘s point of view, but the
 23

priority of values between individuals and groups may differ. However, if

one accepts GNH, we are obliged to do something serious at the textbook
level.

Universally Shared Values?

But only paying attention to them denies what makes us particular,

diverse

Equality, Equity, Justice, Fairness

Freedom, Participation, Inclusion
Peace and Non Violence
Respect, Diversity, Tolerance, Acceptance, Understanding

Human Dignity, Individual Worth

Responsibility – personal, social, civic, environmental
Care and Concern for others, Compassion, Collective well being
Honesty, Integrity, Transparency, Accountability

The chart above lists universally shared values. But I have added a question: if
we only pay attention to universal values, that leaves out those values that
make us specifically who we are. I will give an example. From a universal
value point of view, I am not particularly obliged to recognise and bow to a
Bhutanese dignitary although within our tradition, I should. Nor am I obliged
to bow down, strictly from a universal point of view, to a lama. But because it
is a particular way of manifesting respect in our society, I do. Yet, if we only
stick to such universal values as respect alone, this particular form of respect
will disappear. It can only be defended from a particular point of view.

At a soccietal level, a vision of the inter- At an individual level:

relatedness of existence,… a practice of radical self-
expressed as compassionate activity transformation
free of all self-cherishing concern. based on insight into the
-Justin Whitaker
impermanent nature of reality and
human existence - Justin Whitaker

Others Self No abiding

self
Relation
Deconstruction
Interaction
24

Values are linked to vision. The vision of our government is GNH. It follows
that certain values consistent with GNH vision have to be inculcated in our
students.

Relationships among Domains/Variables: A Deductive View,

Source: Richard Oda, 2008
Happiness

Psycological Community
Well- being Time Use Vitality Culture Health Education Governance
Environmental Living Standard
Diversity
General Education
psycological Sleeping hours Family vitality Health status
Dialect use attainment Government
distress Ecological performance
Safety Income
Traditional Health knowledge Dzongkha degradation
Working hours Housing
Emotional Reciprocity sports language
Ecological Freedom
balance Community Barrier to health knowledge Food security
Trust festival
Social support
Artisan skill Folk and historical Hardship Institutional
Spirituality Socialization trust
Value literacy
Afforestation
Kinship density transmission
Basic precept

Relationships among Domains/Variables: A Holistic View = Interdependence

Happiness

Psycological
Well- being Healt h

Example Only
Communit y
Cult ure Vit alit y
-
-

Living Governance
St andard Time Use Excessive labor
-

Qualit y of work
Consumpt ion
Income

Indust rial
Import Built capit al act ivit ies Labor Educat ion

Purchasing
power Arrow: cause-effect relationship
Energy / Excessive product ion / wast e Conservat ion
“-” sign: negative effect
mat erials
- Two lines: delay
Environment al
Diversit y
 25

I now come to GNH and how it should be reflected in the curriculum. One
way of thinking on this issue is that values related to each of the nine GNH
domains should be specified and practiced. These nine domains are specified
as constituents of happiness, and consider happiness as being absolutely
multi-dimensional. If a person gets various elements under each of these nine
aspects of life right, the chances for happiness will be much higher. The
deductive chart above shows the relationship to be linear.

In reality, what is most important is the inter-relationship between these

domains rather than the domains themselves. The inter-relationship is
absolutely non-linear as shown in the holistic chart. To get things right in
culture is not enough. We have to get it right in culture with respect to other
domains, for instance, the economy or industrial activity. If we don‘t, then the
relationship will break down. If we get it right in terms of education, but don‘t
get it right in education with respect to education in psychological well-being,
again an adverse relationship will develop. Thus, the inter-relationship
between these variables that point to the profound interdependencies between
various aspects of our life - and the lives of others - is important. The
structuring of values according to domains should be viewed merely as a
heuristic device: it should not isolate domains into mutually exclusive spheres
in practice.

7. Values and Practice in Psychological Well-being Domain

People can judge their life as a whole. As they have differing states of
emotions and moods, subjective well-being is a result of such judgements
based on the whole range of their emotional experiences. Scrutinity of how
well people do in relation to these experiences is termed psychological well-
being here. It concerns the inner life of people as they feel it subjectively.

We have to figure out a way of integrating values contained in GNH domains

into textbooks. We start with psychological well-being, where the values we
have to incorporate are compassion, generosity, calmness, karma and
empathy. We must also demonstrate through the narratives in textbooks the
kind of practice that will facilitate the formation of positive behaviour,
wholesome emotions and character among the students.
26

GNH domain Psychological wellbeing

Compassion, generosity, forgiveness,

calmness, gratitude, empathy, and other
Values
wholesome emotions

1. Meditation for mental training

Actions and Practices 2. Prayers as aspect of attitude training
3. Pilgrimage – as aid to acculturation,
meditation, and physical activity
4. Volunteering
5. Donations and other forms of
socially concerned engagements

Values are displayed through practicing them. According to the evidence

from the GNH survey, some 40% of parents discuss spiritual issues with their
children, while 40% of parents do not. And if we identify as to who these 40%
are, they happen to be higher-income parents.

The next chart (above right) gives a breakdown of Bhutanese people with
respect to taking account of karma (the concept of cause, conditions and effect)
in daily life; that is to say whether people use ethical, Buddhist consciousness
in their decisions and actions. There are ethical consequences in any decision
and action.

A public official‘s decision and action have greater long term ethical
consequences on society as a whole because of their greater scope. Some 36%
of people never take ethical consequences into consideration in their daily life:
 27

this is indeed frightening! It will be interesting to find out the reference point
that people use. It will also be interesting how this pie-chart will change over
the next several years with the huge transformation taking place in this
country.

This chart (left) indicates the social attitudes of Bhutanese youth. The
information is from the Youth Development Fund‘s survey. The sample is
taken from 300 students, so cannot be taken too seriously. Nevertheless, it
indicates that students do want to embrace spiritual values and practices,
though the actual reality is less impressive.

This chart shows the distribution of

positive emotions, in particular
generosity. The down side is that 9%
of students never feel the need to be
generous. Of course, we don‘t know
the reference point, but it will be
interesting to find out whether the
portion of people, 22%, that feelings
of generosity often shrink or expand
in the course of time.
28

Self-reported selfishness can be underestimated. Some 67% claim that they

never feel selfish, while 44% of our people frequently feel frustrated - a
disturbing statistic. When the cause of frustration is traced from the GNH
survey data - the two groups who are feeling most frustrated are housewives
and farmers.

8. Values and Practice in Health Domain

GNH domain Health

Vitality, fitness, soundness, self-worth,

prevention, precaution, non-malignance
Values

1. Yoga and other physical activities

Actions and Practices 2. Balanced diet
3. Avoidance of intoxicants (drugs,
alcohol etc.)
4. Avoidance of risky behaviours
5. Mindful consumption

The values in the health domain are vitality (daily energy levels), fitness
(physical condition), and soundness (mental condition). Self-worth,
prevention, precaution, non-malignance (not harming ourselves) are other
values. Not harming oneself is also a Buddhist idea. One can harm oneself
 29

through addictive behaviour. To realise these values, the chart below shows
the practices students should take up. Yoga is one of them. A balanced diet is
another. Healthy food habits should include weaning students off processed
food, which is now being linked to obesity.

About 5% of the students are overweight, including

obesity. Latest research shows that it is not only the
quantity of food, but also the eating of processed
foods that lead to obesity in the long run. And obese
weights also contribute to early dementia, according
to new research findings. Avoidance of risky
behaviour, public health, and mindful consumption
are other areas of practice. Mindful consumption is
a relatively more complex idea but can be
introduced in classes 8, 9, and 10.

The second chart shows the present profile of Body Mass Index (BMI). As
students are young, we expect them to be quite close to having a perfect BMI.
However, there are 4% who are overweight according to the GNH survey.
Being overweight during the teenage years should be taken seriously as being
overweight is linked to health costs - both to individuals and to society.

Students claiming excellent health form 25%

of the total. This kind of self report is
assumed to approximate the diagnostic,
clinical information on mortality rates. It is
simply a cheaper way to assess the health of
the country. However, the portion claiming
excellent health needs to be increased by
making students more aware of healthy
habits.
30

9. Values and Practice in Time Use Domain

Time is an important resource for everyone. It is also a limited resource in that

we have only 24 hours in a day. How we use this limited resource is
important and has implications for our physical, emotional and social well-
being.

Time use studies provide information on the work-life balance of individuals.

This covers the number of hours an individual spends on non-work activities,
such as socialising with family and friends, sports, and other leisure activities,
which are not captured in monetary terms but are crucial from the point of
view of well-being. Imbalance in time allocation between work and other
activities is caused by a number of factors, among which is the increased
number of working hours being the most prominent.

Time use domain is relevant to all sections of society, including students. They
too must enjoy a balanced use of their 24 hours. Overall, I am of the opinion
that the school hours are too long, not only in Bhutan but in other countries,
especially in Japan. Students in Japan finish their cram school, then go for
extra tuition, which is almost universal. It is basically one school after another,
causing stress both to children and parents.

GNH domain Time Use

Stress free-ness, serenity, tranquility,

Values bonding, healthy lifestyles

1. Work -life balance

Actions and Practices 2. Adequate sleeping hours
3. Recreation and leisure satisfaction
4. Community service
5. Socialization

Witnessing the course of the day in Bhutanese schools suggests that the length
of time seems needlessly long. For at least 90 minutes, students are cleaning
drains or gardening. As this is done ineffectively, the time spent is wasteful.
The time they spend in schools should be shortened. Students are needlessly
kept until 4:30pm, leaving no time for homework, socialising, physical activity
 31

or the pursuit of other activities at home. It takes another half an hour for
students to reach their homes after they are dismissed.

Adding anything to the value

curriculum must be achieved
without increasing, but
decreasing school hours. Time
use is also very important for a
student to create room for doing
other things besides classroom
experience. Lessons should be
made more effective by
increasing the students‘ power of
concentration. One method that I
propose is meditation.

The chart (left) shows time allocation to work in different age groups for the
whole country. According to the chart, people under 20 work seven hours.
The time use curve rises with age because of work, peaking at 35 or so.
Having to work so long is perhaps unadvisable, especially if it is stressful.

The chart (left) shows the

geographic distribution of time
use, which varies across the
country. People in Tashiyangtse
work the least hours, whereas
Gasa people work the longest.
Though people in Gasa work
long hours, they follow the
rhythm of yaks and their work is
not as stressful as it would seem.

The chart (left) shows the

duration of social activities per
day. In Tashiyangtse, the hours
of work are the shortest partly
because the duration given to
social and cultural activity is the
longest - 1.54 hours per day. This
is the highest average among the
districts. In Thimphu, the time
32

spent for social and cultural activities has shrunk to just 37 minutes per day
on average. Civil servants enjoy much longer leisure periods. But the average
leisure time for people in general in Thimphu is short. The general population
of the greater Thimphu district has insufficient time for social and cultural
activity.

Difference in
Time Difference in frequency
Activities Male Female Male Female
Community
participation 3:37 3:24 33 33
Education and
learning 5:20 4:38 31 39
Sleep 8:34 8:33 470 467
Personal care 3:19 2:56 470 467

Religious activities 1:44 1:22 170 169

Socio-cultural
activities 2:10 2:04 283 247

Sports and leisure 2:58 2:27 190 189

Travel/commute 1:39 1:25 366 299
57
Waiting 1:54 1:45 20 21

We can get a detailed picture of time use from GNH survey results. The charts
(above left) give summary information about the division of time in the non-
work category for the average Bhutanese by gender.

For example, for personal care, males spend about three hours and 19 minutes
compared to two hours and 56 minutes for females. The national average for
hours of sleep do not show any difference between male and female although
at a disaggregate level, single mothers sleep the least in the country.

The table on the right shows the time devoted to household maintenance. The
duration of household maintenance is usually included in the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP), and therefore the GDP underestimates its contribution to
well-being. From the table, it is possible to discover exactly how much time
goes into cooking and washing on average per day, per household. Cooking
takes up 1.33 hours. One can multiply that duration by the wage rate and by
the number of days in a year to find out of what benefit to society is the work
of housewives in terms of cooking.

10. Values and Practice in Education Domain

Conventional education is largely focused on structured, school-based

processing measures such as pass percentages, dropout rate, school
infrastructure, pupil-instructor ratios and enrolment rates. As a result, the
education indicators cannot assess educational attainments in a holistic way.
 33

Any education system should be able to assess both competence and values.
This is well recognised, but only if they are taught in educational institutions.
However, knowledge and skills and values are also transmitted outside the
school, in communities through indigenous mechanisms. They are all useful
for life, whether or not they are transmitted in schools and included in the
values and practices in the education domain.

GNH domain Education

Creativity, openness, diligence, insightfulness,

Values perseverance, patience,

1. Historical literacy
2. Civic literacy
Actions and Practices 3. Cultural literacy
4. Ecological literacy
5. Food and nutrition literacy
6. Health literacy
7. Other indigenous knowledge literacy

In education, creativity, openness, diligence, insight, perseverance, and

patience are the values to be advocated in textbooks. Patience is something
which is not taught. In prajna paramitas, patience, and by extension self-
restraint, is one key quality among many. In literacy, students have to focus
on various kinds of which Civics – the learning of institutional rules and
regulations - should only be a minor part, unlike in the present curriculum
where Civics occupies major lesson time in classes 9 and 10. Students come to
know such rules quickly in a small country.

I would like to suggest a reduction of time devoted to Civics and divert it to

fundamental topics concerning food, nutrition, hygiene, culture, health, and
ecology. These all deserve more time allocation in schools.

11. Values and Practice in Good Governance Domain

Unlike other domains, governance cuts across all organisations. Good

governance is not directly visible by itself. It is evident only in terms of the
perceptions of people with regard to service delivery, observance of rights
and rules, and accountability in general. Integrity, trust, genuine dialogue
(debate), justice, wisdom, credibility, far-sightedness, empowerment, non-
discrimination and commitment are all held as key values.
34

GNH domain Good Governance

Integrity, trust, genuine dialogue, justice,

wisdom, credibility, far -sightedness,
Values
empowerment, non-discriminativeness,
commitment

Actions and Practices 1. Service delivery

2. Political participation
3. Rights, responsibilities and freedom
4. Rule of law
5. Media
6. Judiciary

Wisdom is concerned with the consciousness of decision making for the long
term - and for the good of all. That is the essence of wisdom in public policies.
We can ask, for example, how can we make decisions, taking into account the
effects 100 years from now, so that a decision looks far ahead in a systematic
way? These kind of investigative lessons and pedagogical methods will enable
students to develop far-sightedness. Schools could easily simulate the effects
of decisions over the next 20 years, if not the next 100, as an aspect of wisdom
development.
 35

In these charts, the perception of people living in developed areas like

Thimphu is the worst, as far as judging government performance is
concerned. It is ironic, given the higher level of services in Thimphu. People
are more discerning in the capital and also less satisfied. In this respect,
common people do not get enough information to make an intelligent guesses
on the government‘s performance.
36

12. Values and Practice in Ecology Domain

GNH domain Ecology

Interdependence, eco-consciousness,
sustainability, non-doministic, non-utilitarian,
Values
aesthetic, naturalistic, and nature reverence

Actions and Practices 1. High air quality

2. High water quality
3. Conservation of biodiversity
4. Efficient energy use
5. Proper waste disposal
6. Eco friendly mass transportation system
7. Eco friendly Industry
8. Eco friendly urbanisation
9. Sustainable land use
10. Organic agriculture

In Science and Social Studies, lessons could be better planned to nurture our
students with a positive and caring attitude towards the environment. More
systematic concepts about interdependence, eco-consciousness, sustainability,
non-doministic (an attitude that does not breed the idea that you have to
dominate nature) values need to be embedded in textbooks.

With respect to the

ecology domain,
students must be
taught to have an
elementary
knowledge of plants,
animals and trees
around their farms or
schools so that they
can have direct
experience of their
environment. Again,
such knowledge level
is lowest in Thimphu
according to GNH
survey. Children in
 37

Thimphu cannot name 10 to 20 plants around them.

Safe waste disposal practice is another important issue to be written into

textbooks. It would also be important to include elementary lessons on
toxicology. Increasingly complex understanding about harmful and
hazardous substances, whether it is pesticides or used batteries, should be
introduced so that students can discriminate non-biogradable and toxic
wastes from bio-degradable and non-toxic wastes.

13. Values and Practice in Living Standards Domain

These days, our standard of living is frequently measured by income, omitting

the effects of non-cash income and other dimensions of life that contribute to
the well-being of individuals. In the living standard domain, food security,
housing, relative and absolute incomes, and the perception of hardship like
having to buy second-hand clothes and the inability to contribute to the
community have a deep effect on our self esteem or well-being. This
perception of hardship in some ways measures both the lack of income and
the sense of shame of not being able to fulfil our expected roles in a
community.

GNH domain Living Standards

Values Self reliance, security, sustainability, adequacy,

lack of shame

Actions and Practices 1. Basic needs like non-second hand

clothes
2. Food security
3. Income sufficiency
4. Financial security, including lack of
indebtness
5. Ability to contribute to community
collection
6. Housing
38

GNH specifies living standards in terms of housing, food, financial security in

relative and absolute terms, and the lack of shame when members are able to
contribute to community collection of goods.

How school textbooks present the importance of living standards to students

can make a huge difference. Poverty is normally presented in terms of the
amount of money needed to meet calorific requirements and the basic
necessities of life. The poverty line today is fixed at Nu. 1,973 per month.
However, this is difficult for children to understand. What‘s more, the
poverty line will shift every few years. From a GNH point of view other
criterion are also included. For example, housing conditions, as measured by
room ratio is an important variable in the living standard domain. In this
respect, about 19% of population needs better housing standards. About 19%
live in a room with three people.

At a higher level of education, living standards cannot be taught in a

simplistic way. Textbooks must present real living standards, or the lack of
them, as part of the ecological, social and political-economy systems in which
we live. Textbooks have to analyse the global, national, political and
environmental issues to understand the reality, and the responsibility, of
living standards in wider terms.

14. Values and Practice in Community Vitality Domain

People are influenced and shaped by the kind of communities in which they
live. A community is a social group, sharing common activities and
experiences, living and belonging to a particular area. Quality of life also
 39

depends on the ties within a community, and not just dependent on the
economic standards of people. A lopsided focus on material wealth has often
gone hand in hand with a loss of community in many so-called developed
countries.

GNH domain Community vitality

Altruism, trust, reciprocity, fairness, fidelity,

family closeness, solidarity, equality, unity,
Values
hospitality, cooperation, honor, sociability,
cohesion

Actions Practice 1. Strong family ties

2. Volunteering
3. Donation
4. Labour exchange
5. Community participation
6. Socialization

In the community domain, values to be promoted in textbooks are altruism,

trust, reciprocity, family closeness, and friendship. These values are anchored
in activities like volunteering, donations, social support, labour exchange,
community participation and socialisation.

Thimphu is at the bottom of

the districts on the
reciprocity score, and with
respect to social support. The
more money people have, the
less sharing there is, if we are
to infer from Thimphu‘s case.
This does not negate income
generation in other districts,
rather, it points to the need
for education on the values
of sharing and giving, which
are dissolving in an urban
set-up where civic
community is lacking.
40

One of the obvious and most corrosive effects on the community is animosity,
and the GNH survey inquired into the causes of this. Enmity rose 12% among
the people we surveyed in 2006. The main causes are shown in the chart
above. Land and marriage are the two major areas of dispute in the courts in
Bhutan today, though the survey shows that they occupy roughly only third
and fourth ranks in the table showing the overall causes of animosity.

There is no obvious solution of how to tackle such disputes without incurring

great costs by launching formal litigations in the courts. Like any bureaucracy,
courts expand with the proliferations of judges and lawyers. However, if we
can orient our society to overcome disputes at the community level, the cost to
society will be far less.

15. Values and Practice in Culture Domain

Some of the values and practices that are normally considered an integral part
of our culture have been included in previous discussions on domains related
to education, health, psychological well-being, ecology and the community.
Therefore, the scope of values and practices here may appear misleadingly
narrow.
 GNH domain Culture 41

Identity, dignity, non-alienation, diversity

Values

1. Dialect proficiency
2. Arts and architecture
Actions and Practices 3. Traditional games and sports
4. Tshechus.
5. Artisan skills

The values to be promoted in the cultural domain are identity, non-alienation,

diversity and dignity. Why? Because a culture gives its members diversity,
dignity and identity. At the same time, these values prevent alienation of
individuals. The members of a cultural group add diversity to the otherwise
imploding and homogenising world.

The main actions and practices to entrench those values are specifically those
forms and expressions of culture which are indigenous, whether they are
languages, artisan skills, the arts, architecture, games and sports. Again, the
scope of cultural practices seems narrow and specialised. This is because
many practices that overlap with the cultural domain have been included in
other domains.
42

16. Four Channels of Imparting Values

There could be four main channels of imparting values in our education

system. Currently, there are three.

The first is prevalent in boarding schools: they are prayers and rituals. They
take more or less one hour. Let us say there are 40 weeks per year and five
prayer sessions a week. Annual allocation of hours to prayers then comes to
about 200 hours. Are we getting a real benefit out of those 200 hours in terms
of value education?

There is value in rituals in themselves as repetition reinforces. But it may be

beneficial to revise this time allocation, by actually reducing prayer sessions.
In addition, we need to introduce some lessons on symbols and techniques
that accompany prayers and rituals. Textbooks and prayers refer to the bell,
mudra, the eight auspicious signs and so forth. Then, when students recite
sherab nyingpo they clap during their prayers session. However, it may be fair
to say that nobody knows what that mudra means, because we don‘t teach
them about symbols and signs. Symbols are a powerful form of
communication and as Bhutanese citizens living in a cultural world laden
with tantric Buddhist symbols, students need to understand them.

The second channel for value transmission at the moment is classroom

teaching based on textbooks. The third stems from the Indian curriculum
standards - known as SUPW - that has been continued after the curriculum
was realigned, for which two hours per student per week are probably
allocated. However, it is doubtful that this time has been used to its best effect
in terms of value education. It is used for the same purpose every week for
cleaning, waste collection, and toilet maintenance etc. Something more out of
it can be made.

I would like to suggest a new, fourth channel, as an extension of rituals. It is

meditation. Only about 1% of Bhutan‘s population meditate on a daily basis
according to the GNH survey. This is obviously a deplorable finding for a
Buddhist country. There are monks and gomchens who meditate for extended
periods, so one could say they are compensating for others, but, ideally,
meditation should to be undertaken by most citizens for some of the time.

In this respect, one aspect of value education we may not be able to skip is the
value basis of Buddhism. In one way or the other, the indigenous literature we
 43

have is all about Buddhism. Our social institutions also rely a great deal on
Buddhism. It would be difficult to ignore it.

The basic precepts, Four Noble Truths, and Eight Fold Paths are included in
our textbooks, but they are not well explained. And these concepts don‘t
graduate towards more advanced concepts in senior classes such as wisdom,
ethics and meditation. By class 10, exploration of topics such as
interdependence, which is emptiness (not instrinsic existence), should be
approached because it is a technique to deconstruct ego. In keeping with
Vajrayana, the textbooks have to broach at higher levels the use of
imagination and poetry as a vehicles for this purposes.

Other ways of understanding will hardly enable us to assimilate the cultural

and religious world around us, which is Mahayanist. Sketches of biographies,
tales and mythologies contain value education, but the direction is haphazard,
the progression is unclear, and the selection of texts needs improvement.

Pilot meditation schemes can be introduced immediately, by selecting special

teachers. Through regular meditation practice, we can make students aware of
their inner world of thoughts and feelings. Meditation is not included at
present, yet students spend more than one hour in prayers. Between the
benefits accrued from meditation and from the one hour of repetitious prayer
chanting —the balance is clear to everybody. There is little cost to practise
meditation. What we need is to inventively shift our perspective.

Why introduce meditation in schools? The next transformation

Cognitive and Academic Performance

– Mindfulness meditation may improve ability to maintain preparedness and orient
attention.
– Mindfulness meditation may improve ability to process information quickly and
accurately.
– Concentration-based meditation, practiced over a long-term, may have a positive
impact on academic achievement.
Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being
– Mindfulness meditation may decrease stress, anxiety, and depression.
– Mindfulness meditation supports better regulation of emotional reactions and the
cultivation of positive psychological states.
Development of the Whole Person
– Meditation can support the development of creativity.
– Meditation supports and enhances the development of skills needed for
interpersonal relationships.
– Empathetic responses are increased with meditation and mindfulness practices.
– Meditation may help to cultivate self-compassion.”
(Source: Santa Clara University)
44

The chart (above) was made by Santa Clara Centre for Meditation.
Introducing meditation will be the transformation in our education system. In
terms of hours, about 30 minutes per day is all that is required. In terms of
time shift, it is not much. But the impact it may create could be dynamic.

Britain is experimenting with the contemplative method in several schools

based partly on works done by Martin Seligman, the father of positive
psychology, and it has been scientifically proven to be a success. Santa Clara
University‘s Centre for Meditation also advocates meditation. Scientific
findings show that it will improve academic performance, mental health and
psychological well-being. Among its many benefits, meditation has also been
shown to reduce stress and anxiety among students.

In terms of instructional requirements, we can rely on an abundant number of

teachers. For the moment, the resource gap in terms of manpower will remain
in the education sector. Capitalising on some of the 168 Bachelors in Buddhist
Studies who passed out from Tango - or local lamas - could be a solution.
Meditation is no longer a religious issue. A great deal of research taking place
around the world shows that this can be done without involving devotional
piety.

And the last channel - social engagement— should be embodied by learning

to contribute to the community. We can envision for classes 8 and 9, a young
Bodhisattva training course. We don‘t need to involve religion, but simply
instill a service-oriented community spirit.

What we are doing at the moment is slightly different. What I‘m suggesting
has also been tried elsewhere and comes from one of the research reports in
India. Students are asked, at a slightly more advanced level, such as class 5
and above, to choose a moral issue in a neighbouring village or in the school
and then investigate it, and try to understand why it is so. Next, they can ask
themselves what needs to be done. The intention is to carry out small projects.
This would at least open up students‘ minds early on, instead of always
simulating issues through textbook lessons.

17. Six Aspects of Moral Personhood

Lastly, we need to re-assess our textbooks with respect to moral development.

We have to create better assessment tools. Are students developing moral
reasoning power? Are students being given entrenched values? Are students
developing aesthetic and artistic sensitivity towards moral issues? They
should experience a strong reaction, indeed revulsion, against anything that is
negative or harmful. Wholesome and positive emotions should be repeatedly
 45

encouraged until they become part of their inner fabric and form an essential
part of their character. Paul Ekman, a psychologist, says that when moods
arise repeatedly, they become character traits. Character is the consolidation
of emotions and moods. Only when moral values and emotions are
manifested in behaviour, will individuals develop a moral identity.

Although students can be inclined towards moral behaviour, and their beliefs
and attitudes can reflect correct values, teaching in schools will be of little
benefit if the broader policies that influence public behaviour are not pro-
GNH. The government spends 50% of GDP every year, about Nu.25 billion.
As a result, the government has an enormous influence on the direction taken
by the society. Individual values and behaviour are influenced by its policies
and programmes. If the agencies of the ministries, para-statal bodies and
businesses are sympathetic to GNH, spreading value education will be an
easier task.
46

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