Experts accuse China of trying to ‘deTibetanize’ Tibetans through education policy

During an international webinar held on Monday, Tibetan experts raised serious concerns over the increasing interference of the Chinese government in the education system of Tibet. According to a report by Tibet Press, the experts held an extensive discussion on "China Using Education as the Last Tool of Colonizing Tibetan Minds”. They noted that Beijing is trying to ‘deTibetanize’ the Tibetan people by brainwashing the students. During the webinar, they highlighted how the Chinese Communist government launched a movement through a chain of residential schools. Moreover, the experts claimed that the Chinese government has targeted children by brainwashing them through colonial and communist tools.

As per Karma Tenzin, a Research Fellow at the Tibet Policy Institute (TPI), the destruction of Tibet had started a long ago when Mao Zedong was the President of the country. The researcher noted Zedong started destroying the education system in the name of cultural revolution. Later, the former President completely changed the education system of Tibet and tried to implement a new Chinese educational policy. At that time, China’s main intention was to eliminate the Tibetan language and to impose Chinese Mandarin as the medium of education and instruction for Tibetan students.

"The youngsters were being taught biased and wrong history lessons where Tibetans were portrayed as inferior to the Chinese masters. It acted as a sheer tool to colonize the Tibetan minds," as per the research. 

Tibetans were forced to adopt the Chinese communist identity, say researchers 

Meanwhile, Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren, the co-founder of ‘Tibet Solidarity’, in his report found that over 86,000 Tibetan children were coerced to join the Chinese boarding schools and were forced to separate themselves from their family members. His research found that the books were designed in such a way that the students could abolish their cultural identity.

The research claimed that the Tibetans were forced to adopt the Chinese communist identity. However, the forceful education had not turned fruitful for the then Chinese government, resulting in a backlash among the local people and the Chinese government.  "After having failed to win the hearts of their Tibetan subject even after seven decades of colonial rule, the Chinese masters of Tibet cannot cope with the fact that such Tibetan youths who have never seen or heard of Dalai Lama or of a free Tibet in their lifetime, are in the forefront of demonstrations and self-immolations against the Chinese rule over Tibet," said John Jones, of Human rights organization, ‘Free Tibet'.  

Image: AP