Conditions of Happiness: Bhutan’s Educating for Gross National Happiness Initiative and the Capability Approach

Abstract

The Educating for Gross National Happiness (EGNH) initiative is viewed as one of the main frameworks for the promotion of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan. Therefore, in recent years, the nationwide implementation of the EGNH initiative has become the focal point of education reform in Bhutan. As an operational GNH framework, a primary focus of the EGNH initiative is to provide those conditions that lead to quality and equity in education. This chapter evaluates the EGNH framework to assess how the EGNH initiative can provide the necessary conditions for well-being and happiness to enable the pursuit of GNH in Bhutan. It uses Amartya Sen’s capability approach (CA) perspective to emphasize that the EGNH framework needs to promote the right conditions for quality and equity in education to ensure that every student in enabled through the education system to pursue GNH. The CA brings to the forefront the need to place the immediate needs of students at the heart of the EGNH framework to provide the conditions necessary for the enhancement of capabilities of students to become the best that they can be, to lead the kind of life they value, to choose a life that leads to well-being and happiness.