It's Everybody's Business!

The month of June has been overly hectic. First, having to switch off suddenly from what I had been doing upto Mid May. Second, having to re-familiarize myself with the familiar-turned-unfamiliar field of Education - by reading voraciously and consulting with colleagues! I'm fortunate to have a team of enthusiasts - that makes leading easier and fun.

My newly acquired line of work hasn't been easy; not that I expected it to be so. Challenges are there to remain, perhaps for a long time, with more to come as we move on with our work. Our nature of work is such. So long as people cling on to their ego, our work will be viewed suspiciously. For us to be successful, we need openness – not only from other stakeholders but also from ourselves towards others. I guess it’ll take time for us to become open, but become we must!

I believe Education is everybody's business. It is the core of success of individuals and success of a country's economy. It is Education that can lift families out of poverty. It is Education that can make positive societies and cultures. It is Education that can develop good politicians and leaders. It is Education that can facilitate building of good systems. 

Building of a good education system is the business of all stakeholders - children, parents, communities, civil society, local and central government, the cabinet, the parliament, teachers, teacher educators, educational institutes and research bodies. This common mission provides scope for collaboration among all stakeholders, yet we leave it to just the Ministry of Education to battle its way through challenges that are of the nation as a whole and to bear the brunt of Education not showing success. And, on the part of the Ministry of Education there must never be this feeling that they are the sole contributors to the building of a good education system. They must reach out to all other stakeholders. Territorialism and protectionism are not relevant anymore. They might have been so when our country felt threatened between the two giant countries of China to the north and India to the south. We are way past that age of severe insecurity - not to say that we are totally secure now. What I'm referring to is 'openness' within. If we must grow in our economy as a member of the globalized world, we must open up to qualities of good education systems in other parts of the world without having to make our ‘developing’ status an excuse (as we tend to). Lack of resources is not the issue, but rather lack of capacity for wise utilization of resources. The question is: Are we investing wisely? Are we thinking investment in Education is a waste? If we are thinking so, it's because we view investment returns as short term results. We focus on showing accomplishment in a long list of activities and outputs and we still find ourselves moaning and groaning, not realizing that people's capacity and lives have not been impacted. 

It's not the number of schools nor the school infrastructure that have an impact on people's capacity. It's the quality of teaching and the quality of learning. Education in school is a joint venture between the teacher and the child. Education at home is a joint venture between the parent and the child. Every environment that a child lives in is an opportunity for education, therefore important that the environment is positive and that every child develops the meta cognition to educate themselves at every available opportunity. What's becoming increasingly significant in a rapidly changing age of information is the capacity of individuals to keep "learning, unlearning and relearning" (as qualified by Alvin Toffler, of literacy in the 21st century).    

Our transformation into a democracy is evidential of our acceptance of democratic principles and processes. One of our most immediate tasks is education in democracy (calling for major changes at the school level) and one of the quickest ways is to allow students in school to live democracy by reorganizing the school system. We already have some good news on this, with schools adopting the system of voting for the school leaders among the students this year. I hope the students knew why they were voting for whoever they voted. This is what's more important than the pressing of the electoral button. This calls for 'critical thinking' ability - to make individuals owners of their own decisions. They need not be told (dictated) who to vote for or be manipulated into voting for somebody they're not well informed about. Dependence on dictation comes from the traditional system of learning that hardly provides any opportunity to the child to engage in higher order thinking - analysis, evaluation, problem solving and creation. We can learn from the experiences of other countries that promote development of these skills.  

I think we need local problem solvers and innovators. I am of the opinion that we have depended for too long on external experts and have at times landed ourselves into trouble with adopted systems not working in our context. We ourselves breed the thought that we can never have experts from within. In other words, we hardly trust ourselves to do what we entitle outsiders to do and gain ownership over, as if it were no longer our business but theirs. If our country must preserve ownership (or copyright) over the locally born GNH ideology, we must produce local innovators to take this ideology forward in a manner best suited to our local needs and beliefs. It is embarrassing enough when we have Buddhist convert foreigners come into our country and preach us on Buddhism. There’s of course much to learn from them. First and foremost is their enthusiasm for learning about Buddhism and making it their business to spread the teachings even among the Buddhists by birth! I would like to see more Bhutanese Buddhists going around the world talking about Buddhism. I personally feel proud that great Bhutanese Buddhist Masters like Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpochhe and Buddhist scholars like Khenpo Karma Phuntshok are renowned world over for their great work in Buddhism that entails not only preservation but also modernization and spread of awareness.

I think we need local experts in agriculture, economics, scientific technology and traditional vocations (e.g. weaving; pottery; mask making; carpentry; engineering structures like our dzongs, monasteries, chhortens and bridges). It seems ridiculous to have road experts from another country where there is no sign of mountains or rugged terrain like there is in Bhutan. It is ironical to trust these people to advise us on building roads!!! We do not realize this because we lack critical thinking!

It is equally ridiculous to have experts from liberal economic systems and consumerist societies advising us on GNH! We must instead advise others on this! It makes me proud that our country has somebody like Dasho Karma Ura to go as a GNH expert to other countries. It would indeed be embarrassing if we had westerners come to our country as GNH experts! We can, of course, have common forums like seminars, conferences and workshops to share thinking on the topic. We’ve had several of such forums already. I believe it keeps the idea alive at least, while our country is working out actions that can bring about GNH impact. My personal hope is that the emphasis on ‘gross’ will not deprive the poorer sections of the society of opportunities to achieve their personal dreams, with the rich becoming richer and the poor showing no signs of improvement. This is what I foresee happening if we equate happiness with contentment or complacency.  

My current field of work (Research in Education) is intended to contribute innovations in education. I hope we can be a good partner to the Ministry of Education in building an admirable citizenry – adept with the knowledge, skills and disposition for making democracy live a healthy life in our country and GNH a Dream Come True for the nation, in addition to Happiness for All Individuals. I also hope we can have other stakeholders on board to make the mission of building a good education system possible.

Let’s make Education work for us! We must! We can! We need not be dependent forever! We can be the developers of our own individual selves and of the nation!