Up to 100,000 Tibetan children aged 4 to 6 forced into boarding preschools: Report

A Hindi version of the report by the Tibet Action Institute was released in New Delhi as part of events marking the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama

New Delhi: Chinese authorities have forced up to 100,000 Tibetan children aged four to six years into a network of colonial boarding preschools, where they face abuse, neglect, indoctrination and identity erasure, according to a new report by a Tibetan think tank.

The report shows how the Chinese government is using Tibetan children as a “means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as a distinct people.” (HT Photo/ Representative photo)

The report by the Tibet Action Institute, drawing on rare first-hand accounts, shows how the Chinese government is using Tibetan children as a “means to aggressively and forcibly assimilate Tibetans, threatening their survival as a distinct people,” the think tank said on Friday as the report’s Hindi version was released in New Delhi as part of events marking the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama.

Ahead of the birthday, the Dalai Lama laid down the process for the continuation of the position of spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists after his death, and said only a trust created by him will be responsible for recognising his reincarnation. The remarks angered the Chinese government, which claimed it alone has the authority to approve the successor of the Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since he fled Tibet during a Chinese military crackdown in 1959.

The Tibet Action Institute revealed in an earlier report in December 2021 that Tibet’s education system has become primarily residential, with almost 900,000 Tibetan children aged six to 18 living in government-run boarding schools. “Subsequent estimates based on fieldwork by a Tibetan educational sociologist additionally suggest that at least 100,000 children aged four to six are also in boarding preschools,” the report said.

The report, titled “When They Came to Take Our Children: China’s colonial boarding schools and the future of Tibet”, presents evidence of the impact of the schools and other Chinese education policies. “Students suffer physical and mental abuse, and in some cases, even death. Parents report being unable to easily access their children while they are in the schools,” the Tibet Action Institute said.

Children are separated from families at an early age – as young as four in some rural areas – and “indoctrinated to be loyal to the Chinese Communist Party”. The report said such measures cause emotional and psychological harm, loss of Tibetan language, and alienation from families and communities.

Even during school breaks, the Chinese government prevents students from accessing Tibetan language classes or participating in religious activities, the report said.

“China’s colonial boarding schools are meant to indoctrinate, not educate Tibetan children,” said education expert Gyal Lo, the Tibet specialist at Tibet Action Institute. “The testimonies in the report confirm my research and my own family’s experience: The Chinese authorities are deliberately taking our children away and disconnecting them from their roots.

“Within a generation our language and culture could be lost, all because the Chinese government sees Tibetan identity as a threat to its control of our nation.”

The Tibet Action Institute said the Chinese government has continued to forcibly close Tibetan-run schools and local village schools in recent years. This leaves most parents with no choice but to send their children to live in government-run boarding schools.

The children, whose mother tongue is Tibetan, must undergo schooling almost entirely in Chinese. “Tibetan language materials, imagery or cultural content is purged from the curriculum and the classroom walls, so that children only encounter Chinese identity and culture,” the Tibet Action Institute said.

Gyal Lo said China’s attempt to “dictate” the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must be seen in parallel with its “deeply troubling effort to reshape an entire generation of Tibetan children through its colonial boarding school system”. He added, “These are not isolated policies – they reflect a systematic strategy to erase Tibetan identity, culture and spiritual traditions.”

BJP MP Sujeet Kumar, who spoke at Friday’s launch of the report, said the revelations are “deeply disturbing and demand urgent global attention”. He added, “As a democracy rooted in compassion and justice, India stands in solidarity with the Tibetan people in their struggle to preserve their language, culture and identity. No child anywhere in the world should be separated from their family or heritage in the name of assimilation.”

Kumar reiterated an assertion recently made by Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu that India shares a border with India, not China. “We should call it the India-Tibet border,” Kumar said.