Until the introduction of modern, western form of education in 1950s the only form of formal education available in Bhutan was monastic education. While monastic education continues to be an important part of the national culture, western education has been promoted and expanded since first Five Year Plan in 1961 to address the basic educational needs, and develop human resources required for the socio-economic development of the country. Within a period of four decades, the government has been able to expand the modern education system from about 11 schools prior to the first Five Year Plan in 1961 to 447 schools and institutes in 2004, spanning from community primary schools to tertiary institutes.

The objective of the primary education in Bhutan is not only to equip the students with basic literacy and numeracy skills but also to impart knowledge of the country's history, geography and traditions. In addition, the functional skills such as fundamentals of agriculture, health and hygiene and population education have also been incorporated in the primary school curriculum. Over the years the moral science and value education are also being given special attention within the education programme. All these are being provided within the framework of the new system of activity based learning, which has been adopted uniformly across the country.

The formal educational structure in Bhutan consists of 7 years of Primary education (including Pre-Primary) and 6 years of Secondary education, comprising of 2 years each of lower, middle and higher secondary. This is followed by a 3-year Degree programme at Sherubtse College, the two National Institutes of Education (NIE) at Paro and Samtse, and the Institute of Language and Cultural Studies. A 4-year degree programme is also available at the Royal Bhutan Institute of Technology. Basic education extends class PP to class X, and is available to every citizen in the country. Promotion from one class to the next is based on a system of continuous assessment, minimum attendance and term examinations. For classes VIII and X, promotion is determined by the student’s performance at the national level board examinations, with a 20% weightage given to school assessment. A place beyond the Basic Education level is generally guided by the human resource plans.