The Bhutanese Leading the way.
While Bhutanese head abroad to make money a major factor in them not wanting to come back is the educational facilities and systems abroad for their children.
Often, this is what is holding back homesick parents and eventually they end up settling abroad.
While Bhutan has been focusing on the hard part of education like subjects, marks, exams etc. the education in the west is much more all-round and inclusive.
The education system in Bhutan is becoming increasingly more stressful with more homework, more exams, more stress on pure academics and more pressure.
India has had a similar model for a while and it has one of the highest student suicide rates and enormous stress on students and parents. Even with all that burden on students it lags behind when compared to countries like the USA which produce more entrepreneurs and industry creators.
Even developed Asian countries like South Korea and Japan place too much stress on their students and they are like virtual zombies moving from classes to late night tuitions and no life to speak off.
The education system is Bhutan is largely not inclusive. We like to pretend we do not have a large number of differently abled children and the facilities for them are severely lacking in terms of SEN teachers and systems.
A major factor for parents when they want to stay in a country or not depends on what it will offer their children.
Bhutan should work to improve its education system but we should not rob children of their childhood and we should also work to be much more inclusive.
There is no point putting huge stress on students only to produce the student zombies of the future. We must allow them space, creativity, an ability to think for themselves and grow up in a diverse and inclusive education system. That is the economy and society of tomorrow.
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
William Butler Yeats