China Accused of 'Indoctrinating' Tibetan Children in Boarding Schools

Tibetan children face abuse, neglect, indoctrination, and identity erasure in the Chinese government's network of colonial boarding schools and preschools in Tibet, an advocacy group has accused.

- Dar Ovais

DHARAMSHALA:

The Tibet Action Institute (TAI) in its recent report has accused the Chinese government of using Tibetan children as a means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as distinct people. The report found that students are restricted from enrolling in Tibetan language classes or engaging in religious activities, even during school breaks.

As per activists, such boarding schools are now believed to house approximately one million Tibetan children; however, the exact number is difficult to confirm.

The report titled "When They Came to Take Our Children": China's Colonial Boarding Schools and the Future of Tibet" says the children are separated from their families at an early age—as young as four years old in some rural areas—and indoctrinated to be loyal to the Chinese Communist Party.

"There is now additional evidence that even younger children are being compelled to board across Tibet. At present, Tibetan children aged three or four to six must attend Chinese-language preschool," the report states.

TAI, a US-based advocacy group created in 2009 to assist Tibetans after large protests were held before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.