UNESCO partnered with the Royal Government of Bhutan to deliver training for civil servants in AI ethics, responsible AI governance, and media and information literacy. The training programme ran across 2024-2025. It is part of Bhutan’s broader alignment with ethical AI principles consistent with Gross National Happiness development philosophy. Additionally, the national AI Lab Program has a five-year target of training over 1,000 people and developing more than ten AI tools and solutions. The Eduten AI-powered mathematics platform was deployed nationwide in schools for Grade 4 in 2025 and is expanding to Grades 5 and 6.
Who it affects: Civil servants with AI-adjacent roles are the direct beneficiaries of the UNESCO-partnered training. The AI Lab Program targets professionals seeking AI development skills. School students in Grades 4-6 are the users of the Eduten platform, which provides an AI-supported learning environment rather than AI literacy instruction.
What is notably missing: The UNESCO civil servant training programme is a time-limited project rather than a standing mandatory training standard. No law requires civil servants to complete AI ethics training before deploying AI systems. There is no defined minimum standard, no verification mechanism, and no consequence for non-completion. The Eduten platform is an AI-powered tool for maths, not an AI literacy curriculum. Bhutan has no dedicated AI regulatory authority and no national AI strategy document publicly available.