Gross National Happiness

I’ve been on long service leave for a few weeks.

Many of you might remember I spent a week in Bhutan on an educational tour with the Asia Education Foundation. As always, when I return from overseas I am astonished at the contrast between our education system and its generosity and quality, and that of countries still developing. However, equally amazing are the similarities. I visited a lovely primary school the same size as ours in Thimphu, the capital – children performed on assembly, the school was focused on recycling and teaching about the environment and growing food, they had a maker space for learning to be creative, teachers spent time every week on social and emotional literacy and measured their progress on student happiness, and even more amazing and quite funny, the school also had car parking problems! I loved it.

A stand out in the developing world is the high value parents and students place on their educational opportunities. Education is viewed as the singularly most important activity in the community and parents commit enormous energy in getting their children to school and providing them with the resources they need for participation. Hardly a day of school is missed for any reason except extreme sickness, and teachers and other staff are held in very high esteem. Australia is certainly the lucky country in comparison with other systems from around the world. Our governments provide fantastic facilities, high quality and highly trained teachers and other staff, and most of the resources Australian children use every day. I walked around our school on Monday morning on my return and marvelled at our beautiful well-maintained school and quietly thanked the lucky stars that have helped us amass the best teachers and teacher aides you will find anywhere in the world.