- Bhutan launches Yarabling HSS in Yonphula as its first specialized recovery school for youth battling drug addiction, integrating academics with therapy and life skills.
- The school will initially admit around 60 students, with a full capacity of 424 and specially trained staff from Bhutan, India, and Thailand to support at-risk youth.
- Amid rising drug abuse among students (3,678 arrests under 24 in 2023–24), the school is part of a national shift toward rehabilitation over punishment.
In response to the nation's increasing youth drug abuse crisis, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MoESD) formally launched the country's first specialized school, Yarabling Higher Secondary School (YHSS) in Yonphula, Trashigang.
The school, opened for a soft launch yesterday, is a transitional support centre. Contrary to the normal school, it offers a supportive and structured setting where the students can pursue their schooling while going through directed recovery.
Yarabling Higher Secondary School Principal Yeshey Dorji explained that although 63 students are on the admission list, the school anticipates 55 to 60 to join in the next few months. The school integrates the national academic curriculum with specialized programs aimed at therapy, counseling, and life skills to supply a vital lifeline for students struggling with addiction. Students who show substantial progress will be returned to their initial schools.
"If individual students recover successfully from drug addiction, they will be readmitted to their former schools", Principal Yeshey Dorji said. "If they think they are likely to relapse, the school will entirely assist them to help them continue studying without interruption". He further stated that the ministry would also offer extensive guidance for mental well-being, behavior adjustment, and studies. The launch of YHSS is one of the government's overall strategies in prioritizing rehabilitation over punishment.
The school's innovative model integrates the national academic syllabus with additional counseling, health programs, and vocational training, all of which are designed to facilitate student recovery. The school will have a first intake period from February to July and a second intake period from July to December, and students will be permitted to take their exams on campus.
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YHSS can take 424 students from classes VII through XII. To begin with, for its inauguration, the school will receive about 60 students and 30 teaching and non-teaching staff. Staff and teachers have received specialized training in Bhutan, India, and Thailand to train them to work optimally with at-risk youths. The program was accelerated following a directive by the National Drug Task Force in April 2024.
The gravity of the situation was underscored by MoESD Minister Yeezang Dee Thapa, who in March announced that police had arrested 400 students for drug abuse, and school counselors had identified another 1,500 students engaged in substance abuse.
A National Council report made in June further accentuated the enormity of the crisis, noting that 3,678 people below the age of 24, more than half of all drug arrests in the nation were arrested for drug-related offenses between the years 2023 and 2024. The campus of the school, a former Kelki Higher Secondary School, was purchased by the government for Nu 160 million and has seen massive renovations.
It had also been converted into a Covid-19 hospital in the past, with the Ministry of Health spending close to Nu 8 million to upgrade facilities like road, toilets, electrical fixtures, and proper water supply. The PEMA Secretariat, Royal Bhutan Police, and the MoESD will coordinate admissions and student placement at YHSS for proper and sensitive case handling.
But cases of medical detoxification or intensive clinical treatment will still be referred to The PEMA Rehab Centre. The inauguration was graced by the minister of education Yeezang Dee Thapa, as well as the ministry and Trashigang Dzongkhag officials.
