China uses colonial boarding schools for political assimilation: New report reveals exile community condemns unjust system

Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], June 1 (ANI): US-based Tibet Action Group has come up with a new report that reveals that China is using colonial boarding schools for political assimilation and not for education access.

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The report says that China has designed this system to assimilate Tibetan children. The report describes how these preschoolers from different regions of Tibet are separated from their parents and kept in these boarding schools where the Tibetan language is banned and the practice of their religion or culture is prohibited even during school holidays. They are forced to learn only in the Chinese language.

The Tibetans in-exile have strongly condemned the execution of these colonial boarding schools by communist party of China.

Namgyal Dolkar, member of Tibetan parliament in-exile told ANI, "It is a report that has been out in public in front of the human rights advocates, an organisation for several years now. We are well aware of the fact that China has not only signed but rectified many of the important international treaties, including those who are human rights and trade in many matters but what is crucial is the fact that a nation that has signed those important treaties which includes protection of children and preservation of language. Nor is it just international treaties, but we have the Chinese constitution that talks about protection of the language and the customs of the minorities which includes the Tibetans in the occupied Tibet.

"We are looking into a very very categorically, a planned move that has been systematically set up by the Chinese communist party over the years of making sure that they are able to control the minds and brains of the Tibetans for many coming years and we have known that over the years they have learnt to target the young minds of Tibetans within the occupied Tibet. We are looking into how they have learnt that it is important to be able to control the narrative of the Tibetans for them to be able to embrace the so-called motherland China and the very motivated propaganda of Chinese Communist party to bring that propaganda within the school system of making sure that they really grill it in the minds of the Tibetan children that you are a part of that so called motherland and that you are one of the small fracture of that Chinese identity and you are not a Tibetan.

"That perhaps your identity does matter. I think they have brought that within the school system, they have learnt that Tibetan children being within the embrace of their parents, their family leads to these children being brought up as pro Tibetan and that is a major threat to Chinese communist party, hence they have now made it mandatory for any family member to enroll their children in those colonial boarding schools and the reason why we are calling it as colonial boarding school exactly because of that sort of propaganda that is taught to the Tibetan children because it is entirely politically motivated..."

Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist told ANI, "This is 62 pages report by Tibet Actions and the report is based on continued research and their search in Tibet how and what is unfolding ever since China has started to implement what is called, is bilingual policy in certain areas from 2009 and in certain areas from 2012 and the following years. What Tibet action has found is almost about 100,000 children are being forcibly indoctrinated in China's colonial boarding schools in Tibet. These are the boarding schools in towns and cities and villages where there are direct access for the children to go to their own homes. But China is not allowing to go to their homes. But these boarding schools are compulsory education process where children are kept in these boarding schools and given education only in Chinese language. This is our fear that in the next 5, 10 or 15 years, Tibetan children may grow up only as Chinese knowing only Chinese language and therefore directly causing in literal terms genocide in Tibet."

The report estimates that at least one lakh Tibetan children aged four to six are currently in boarding preschools across Tibetan areas. And more than nine lakh children aged 6- 18 already known to be enrolled in such boarding schools.

The exile community is seeking an intervention by the international community to pressure China. (ANI)

(The story has come from a syndicated feed and has not been edited by the Tribune Staff.)