If you had just one day of the year to look forward to -- the day on which you know you will be happy -- which would it be? The start of a new year, replete with renewed hope and good intentions; a revered religious festival, framed by faith and future, or an individual celebration, marking a symbolic personal occasion and the joy things to come?
Whatever your personal preference, March 20 towers above all choices, the day that the United Nations has resolved that we should all reflect on our happiness and its contributory causes (UN-R 66/281).
Coinciding with International Happiness Day is the annual publication of the World Happiness Report, published by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Drawing on the data from 150 countries, it ranks a society's success in meeting its social ends. Whilst great philosophers have disagreed on the nature of happiness, a cerebral question rooted in time or place, World Happiness just asks people how happy they feel with their lives, and then identifies the influencing factors.
There is a solidity to the six influencing factors: GDP per capita, social support, health life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perception of corruption. These factors help rank countries and place them somewhere on an abstract continuum, from utopian to dystopian. Rather like mathematical infinity, no country can be as good as utopia or as bad as dystopia. Having surveyed millions of people, over the years, the aim is not just to produce a snapshot in time but to lay down a challenge for governments globally: To make its overarching objective the conditions for most wellbeing and least misery within its country.
The state of the nation
Breaking into the top one hundred last year, 2023 saw Bangladesh ranked in 118th place. Not a freak fall and worthy of closer analysis, given the 3-year average ranking. The 50-year story of the country is of headline importance however: Since 1971, a story of poverty reduction through growth. World Bank trend analysis shows how one of the poorest nations (1971) has reached lower-middle income status (2016) and is on track to achieve LDC status (2026), with its vision of becoming an upper-middle income country (2030).
Endemic factors will take time to change whereas a singular focus on educational improvement can bring impact now. Impressive net enrolment in primary (97%) and improved in secondary (74%) are matched by gender parity of access in primary and more girls than boys in secondary (World Bank, 2022). Consistent with these achievements is the need for an articulated national education strategy.
First, a national education strategy that builds early years education. Second, a national curriculum with a core focus on skills development. Third, an improved international resource fund for standards-based improvements in infrastructure, in leadership, and in the professional teaching force.
Effective early years education builds social and emotional development and offers the greatest return on investment amongst those most in need, a steppingstone away from poverty and social exclusion (Heckman, 2006). National curriculums with a core focus on skills development are future oriented, giving young people values, attitudes and attributes that make them life-long learners and life-ready employees. Standards-based education builds a broad system of instruction, assessment and grading linked to student mastery of expected skills development across the educational journey.
Education and training are the long run supply-side forces for economic growth. Empowering young people to be economically successful, enabling young adults to contribute to their civic culture, and preparing your people for a future beyond school: These are the building blocks for a supply-side growth in Bangladesh. They also have the potential to improve self-worth and how people feel about their lives. This is not a quick fix but a considered plan for a population's growth and personal contentment. We start with the golden thread of happiness in education.
Harvesting happiness in our schools
UNESCO believes that a happy school is a place where "the principles of compassion, communication, and community building are priorities." Happy schools are principled organizations which guide the enterprise and its stakeholders. Such principles shape the values, attributes, and attitudes that students learn to live their lives by. Happy schools attract and keep great people through an active and enduring commitment to their personal wellbeing and professional development. Wellbeing shines out in an inclusive and diverse way through quality relationships, via concern for people's welfare and through investment in decent physical working conditions. As an inspector of schools, we would always start with bathrooms and breathing spaces.
Happy schools care about experiences: From the quality of classroom activities to the quality of school food, from their commitment to art, music, and sport to the range of extracurricular activities students are encouraged to pursue. Happy schools care about place in the broadest sense: The physical, virtual, and hybrid school spaces where safety and welfare area paramount contexts for inclusive and engaging learning. Happy schools are great schools with a confidence about learning and an assuredness about learning outcomes.
My school, Haileybury Bhaluka, will be a hub for sharing strong practice, and as a centre to support other schools from all sectors. We believe in collaborative approaches for the betterment of all students, schools, and society. Our long-term goal to improve happiness is complemented by the short-term impact of private-public partnerships. These partnerships must have pillars to promote positivity and wellbeing. To this end, we commit to a common culture, with ethos and values that put people front and centre. We construct measures of wellbeing, to show progress year on year. We compose a civic-centred curriculum and the explicit teaching of skills: Creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.
In building better futures, we move forward together.
Simon O'Grady is the Founding Headmaster of Haileybury Bhaluka, the first premier boarding school in Bangladesh. Having built outstanding schools on three continents, he draws on his leadership experience to outline how happy students become contented citizens.
