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Bhutan Baccalaureate: Five Areas of Development

Wholistic Development and the making of a Person of Substance

The Bhutan Baccalaureate reimagines the concept of education, extending beyond the conventional one-size-fits-all approach. It creates an enabling learning environment for the wholistic growth of learners in the Five Areas - Emotional, Cerebral, Physical, Social, and Spiritual - helping learners actualise their innate potential to become the best version of themselves.

HundrED 2021
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Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

HundrED 2021

HundrED 2020

HundrED 2019

HundrED 2018

Web presence

2015

Established

14.2K

Children

3

Countries
Target group
Community
Updated
May 2024
The Bhutan Baccalaureate seeks to create a thriving learning environment for the development of people who can engage meaningfully with manifold and multidimensional challenges and opportunities of a fast-changing world. We aspire to build a community of learners who strive to actualise their innate potential and become the best versions of themselves, while also inspiring others to do the same.

About the innovation

Why did you create this innovation?

The ever-evolving nature of our world demands that individuals possess the ability to respond to the changing needs of society by becoming active, dynamic and independent learners. With a focus on learning how to learn, we equip individuals to be self-driven learners while also helping them cultivate the aesthetic mindset of ‘care’ so that they may contribute positively to the world around them.

What does your innovation look like in practice?

The Bhutan Baccalaureate Learning Process and Curriculum is rooted in the wholistic development of learners across Five Areas of Development. In keeping with the spirit of learning how to learn, rather than what to learn, the cultivation of Skills, Processes, & Watermarks in the Five Areas form the benchmarks against which learning is assessed and reported.

The Backstories of learners - their experiences, strengths, challenges, and aspirations - are collected and used to contextualise the Learning Process and Curriculum. Learners also design Individual Roadmaps, allowing them to raise the bar and take ownership of their own learning. The Individual Roadmaps feed into Mentor-Group Roadmaps, then Domain Roadmaps, the Five Area of Development Roadmaps, eventually culminating in the School Roadmap.

A short video on The Five Areas of Development can be found here

How has it been spreading?

In 2021, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development of Bhutan adopted the Bhutan Baccalaureate as the driving force behind Education Reforms in the country. As of this year, 24 schools across Bhutan have adopted the Bhutan Baccalaureate.

Contextualisation has always been at the heart of the Bhutan Baccalaureate. Each of the 24 schools have used their Learner Backstories to guide the development of their School Roadmaps. All schools collected responses from parents and community members to the question ‘What do you want your children to learn?’, the insights of which have been used to contextualise the Bhutan Baccalaureate Curriculum to each school.

The Five Areas of Development have also been adopted by Pallavan School, Jhalawar, India and Paradise Valley school, Oman.

If I want to try it, what should I do?

Please contact the Druk Gyalpo’s Institute, Bhutan, if you would like to learn about the Bhutan Baccalaureate or explore opportunities for collaboration.

Visit our website: https://dgi.edu.bt/, where you can interact with our chatbot or contact us dgi@academy.bt

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

5 Areas of Development is a practical, multi-dimensional model aiming to address the needs of students through changing the focus of education. The concept, ideas and intention of the 5 Areas of Development could be easily used and adapted in other schools around the world to enrich any school curriculum.

HundrED Academy Reviews

The holistic approach of this innovation can have a huge impact on student wellbeing and learning. It is also a low tech solution, which increases the scalability in low connectivity regions.

I believe simple things as training for teachers are the greatest innovation! And the 5 skills are really very important for kids, for humans and humankind!

- Academy member
Academy review results
Impact
Scalability
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Exceptional
High
Moderate
Limited
Insufficient
Read more about our selection process

Implementation steps

Learn About Us
Learn about the Bhutan Baccalaureate through our website (https://dgi.edu.bt/) or contact us at dgi@academy.bt to get more information on what is required to bring the Bhutan Baccalaureate to your school.
Applying for Affiliation
Submit an application for affiliation to the Bhutan Baccalaureate. We review applications for affiliation and provide contextualised plans for a way forward. Schools may be asked to review and re-submit their application.
Transition
Schools are introduced to the Learning Process through teacher training and immersion programmes. Schools begin into internalise the Learning Process and align their system, policies and curriculum to the Bhutan Baccalaureate.
Becoming a Bhutan Baccalaureate School
We review the implementation of the Learning Process and accept the school as a Bhutan Baccalaureate school.
Functioning as a Bhutan Baccalaureate School
The school engages in evolving the Bhutan Baccalaureate. The school participates in regular review of the systems, processes and policies.

Spread of the innovation

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