Chinese schools in Tibet 'indoctrinating' children

Rights activists have accused Chinese authorities of indoctrinating Tibetan children and eroding their culture by forcing them to attend "colonial" boarding schools.

- ALISHA RAHAMAN SARKAR

The Tibet Action Institute, a movement advocating for Tibetan independence founded by Tibetan-Canadian activist Lhadon Tethong, published a new report yesterday warning that schools are teaching children as young as four to be loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.

The activists estimate that one million children in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan districts study at such boarding schools, though the number is difficult to confirm. The group has claimed that the schools are a smaller part of a broader strategy to dilute Tibetan identity and assimilate Tibetans into the majority Chinese culture, with the Xi Jinping-led government perceiving Tibetan identity as a “threat”.

China has shuttered village schools across Tibet and replaced them with centralised boarding schools over the last dozen years, leaving parents with little choice but to send their children to such facilities. Many students come from remote farming villages and live at the schools full time.

Through these boarding schools, the report warned, the Chinese government was trying “to deracinate Tibetan children from their culture, language, and identity”.

The report found students were restricted from enrolling in Tibetan language classes or engaging in religious activities. Tibetans view the practice of their language as the fundamental guarantee of their future as a distinct people within the broader Chinese region.