January 31, 2010: The last quarter of 2009 and this January, there has been an incredible flurry of GNH conferences from South America to Thimphu to Phuentsholing and finally in Paro stretching for 19th January – to – 12th February. Possibly, the final leap! The conference at Paro College of Education is on the subject of Educating for Gross National Happiness. The keynote address delivered by the Prime Minister at the first Principals workshop is lengthy and revealing. I try to reflect upon the phrases that self illuminate but I fail to hold on to the glow. The following essence of the subject of GNH as illuminated in the keynote address causes one to pause and wonder.

“How extraordinarily fortunate we are that our beloved Fourth Druk Gyalpo had the incredible wisdom and foresight to recognize and understand a quarter century ago that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross National Product.”

GNH acts as our National Conscience guiding us towards making wise decisions for a better future…. Our foremost priority must always remain the happiness and wellbeing of our people — including the generations to come after us…. GNH is development guided by human values…. I am confident that the noble goal of Gross National Happiness will be key to Bhutan’s success in maintaining our unity and harmony — indeed our character as a nation. (This is a part of His Majesty’s speech in Delhi.)

It’s just a matter of reaching into our own hearts, and into our essential human-ness, to discover exactly what we need to do to bring GNH effectively into our schools in every corner of this land.

In fact, many of you are already doing it — beautifully! I hear splendid stories of principals who have created an atmosphere of true respect, warmth, and delight in their schools just by treating teachers and students with genuine dignity and esteem, and by valuing each one’s unique contribution to the school community. I hear wonderful stories of schools generously serving their communities, protecting the natural environment, and using positive rather than punitive discipline to create harmony.

So bringing GNH into the education system has nothing to do with adding a new subject. Rather, it is about how we can enrich all our learning, and give it a heartfelt and genuine context, purpose, and meaning. That will make the curriculum and learning more enjoyable, more pleasurable, and much more relevant.

But what was equally clear last month was that if we were going to launch this rocket, we had to land it. And you, my friends, are the only ones with the means to land this rocket effectively, by bringing it down to earth in the most practical way in your own schools. So we knew last month that we completely depend on you for this initiative to succeed.

That’s why I started out by saying that the fulfilment of my dream depends entirely on you, and it’s why I said I have waited so long for this moment and for this precious opportunity to work with you to bring GNH fully and properly into our educational system.

But it is precisely because there is no road map for us to follow that we will and must inevitably make mistakes. We will try things that sound good but don’t work. But I also know that we will learn from every mistake we make and from each other, and that the challenges will be at least as important and productive as the success stories.

I think our only motto as we set out on this journey is “Be Brave”.

Now our job is simply to realize his vision (Fourth King’s GNH vision) in practice and turn his understanding into action.”

The above are the illuminating phrases and statements in the keynote address of the Prime Minister from which I tried to comprehend where we are now heading in terms of GNH.

But no, again I must confess, I don’t get it. There seems to be an illumination but it does not help me to see clearly. Are we sowing the seed of GNH to take root after having been the store keeper of GNH grain for the last 25 years? Are we confirming that in practice, we have yet to implement the GNH in the way that it was philosophically conceived?

In entrusting the education institutions and those within them the task of GNH propagation, has it been decided to keep GNH theoretically alive. In other words, we may be conducting a noble process of honourable burial for a social and economic philosophy that none can fault and yet practically the ways have yet remained elusive for anyone to take it forward. Bon voyage or future hopes, GNH has been a captivating subject that still remains tantalizing. It has caught the attentions of world leaders including Presidents and Prime Ministers but a destined time for it to blossom may yet is still to come.

“GNH is more important than GNP”. In a very practical sense I always thought that it meant that it was more important for a nation to have her people have access to motor road with money for bus fare than just having handful of super rich citizens driving luxurious cars on asphalt roads while majority of populace neither have fares for buses nor access to road. I thought it meant that though a nation could have well-off industrialists whose production and earning capacity can push up GNP figures, the more important thing is to have adequate basic needs of food, shelter and access to medical and educational facilities for the majority. That I thought was the meaning of the concept the “GNH is more important than GNP”.