Civics education in Bhutan: Student knowledge and stakeholder perspectives

Abstract

Bhutan became the world's youngest democracy in 2008. In order to keep pace with the change in governance, the Ministry of Education in Bhutan initiated the development of a curriculum to educate young people on democracy by preparing Bhutan Civics textbooks. Civics education as a standalone subject starts in Class 7 and continues to Class 12. It is a mandatory subject for all students up to class 10 but exit for those who choose to pursue science, commerce and 'rigzhung' streams. Only arts stream continues to study civics till class 12. Up until Class 6, civics and citizenship is taught as part of social studies and is not a separate subject. Given that Bhutan's civics education has now been in operation for a number of years, it is timely to explore the learning experiences of students, the teaching experiences of teachers and the expectations of relevant stakeholders. The enhanced understanding of the current state of the acquisition of civics knowledge in Bhutan resulting from this study can be used by policy makers, curriculum designers and teacher educators, as well as teachers and the public, as part of a process of continual quality improvement. Data for this study have been gathered from five sources: • A test taken by 270 students on Bhutan Civics content; • Focus group semi-structured interviews with 54 students; • Face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 13 teachers; • Face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 11 curriculum-based stakeholders; and • An analysis of Bhutan Civics textbooks. This study reveals the need to strengthen civics education in Bhutan, starting from the presentation and content of the textbooks to the delivery of lessons in classrooms. Lack of citizenship content is identified as another gap in the overall teaching and learning process of Bhutan Civics. Further, there is a demand for civics teachers' professional development in teaching the civics subject, from both students and teachers. Besides other civics sections, Bhutanese ethos, such as 'Ley Jumdrey' and 'Tha Damtshig', and Bhutanese etiquette, 'Driglam Namzha', have been identified as important components that ought to be part of civics and citizenship education in Bhutan. In order to fulfil national aspirations for an informed citizenry able to participate in a democracy, civics and citizenship must be recognised as one subject that needs to be given importance. For future citizens to be active participants in nation-building, subjects such as civics and citizenship should not take a back seat in the school curriculum.