THE SINOCISATION OF TIBETAN STUDENTS
China's latest suppression of Tibetan language in schools
Recent actions and policy-making by Chinese officials in the "Tibetan Autonomous Region" display a striking and ominous trend to intensify the sinocisation of Tibetans in Tibet through the targeting of Tibetan language. Chinese authorities have for some time linked Tibetan language to Tibetan nationalism, and thus to a propensity for "splittist" activities. By repressing the use or knowledge of Tibetan language and replacing it with Chinese language, China hopes to erode Tibetan cultural identity and completely integrate the next generation of Tibetans into Chinese culture. Beginning in Tibet's class rooms, China is finding "education" the ultimate weapon for control.
In 1987 the "TAR", following an initiative by the late 10th Panchen Lama, introduced legislation that prioritised Tibetan as the medium of education for Tibetan students. The "Regulations on the Study, Use and Development of the Tibetan Language", promulgated in March 1989, stipulated that by 1993 all new junior middle school students - age 13 to 15 - should be taught in Tibetan and by 1997 most lessons in senior middle schools and technical secondary schools should be in Tibetan.
At the middle school level, Chinese authorities in Tibet in 1989 introduced four experimental classes in Tibetan-medium education in central Tibet. Teaching in Tibetan was shown to be far more effective for Tibetan students; the first graduates of the pilot project achieved a 79.8% pass rate, far better than the 39% pass rate of other Tibetan secondary school students who were required to study in Chinese. However this experiment was terminated by the Chinese authorities in 1996 on the grounds that there was a lack of teachers qualified to teach in Tibetan, despite the fact that some 500 teachers had been trained to teach in Tibetan since 1993. The classes were replaced with experimental bilingual classes in selected primary schools.
This "experiment" in bilingual primary education appears to have become standard policy following an announcement by a TAR official on 17 April 1997 that Tibetan language will no longer be the sole language for education in primary schools in Tibet. Chinese language is to be introduced from the first year of schooling and it is also indicated that Chinese may actually replace Tibetan in some primary classes.
Even at the level of tertiary education Tibetan language is being eliminated. Sources in Lhasa have reported a recent decision that the Tibetan Language Department of the University of Tibet in Lhasa will not take any new students for the academic year of 1997-98. The reason given by the university authorities is that the syllabus is being changed and the new books required have not yet been compiled. This decision follows policy changes announced by Chinese authorities in December 1996 that the university's History of Tibet course, taught by the Tibetan Language Department, would henceforth be taught in Chinese rather than Tibetan.
A long-standing requirement that all students pass an entrance examination in Tibetan is also said to have been dropped this year and all except one of the 17 university courses are now taught in Chinese. These new policies come despite the fact that 80 percent of students and many of the teachers at the University of Tibet are Tibetan. They ignore both the stipulation included in the 1987 legislation that "after the year 2000" most lectures in tertiary institutions should "gradually" be in Tibetan, and one of the reasons listed for the founding of the University - the maintenance and development of Tibetan culture and language.
Other recent actions include the disbanding in late 1996 of the TAR Guiding Committee, set up to oversee the implementation of the 1987 language regulations. The committee had earlier been reported as having been downgraded from regional to county level.
Privately run schools are also subject to China's regulations regarding linguistic education. Recent arrivals from Kantze Dzong in Kham (incorporated into the Chinese province of Sichuan) say there are many Tibetans in the area who are seeking Chinese permission to open private schools where Tibetan language will be exclusively taught, but are being refused. Children who have fled into exile report that the clandestine teaching of Tibetan language and culture is undertaken at great risk to both teacher and pupil.
While Tibetan was declared the official language of the "TAR" in July 1988, it is now felt by many Tibetans that Chinese is imperative for employment opportunities. AFP reported on a recent informal survey of 12 to 16 year-old
students from Secondary School number 1 in Lhasa who declared their preference for Chinese over Tibetan language. Many of the students interviewed began Chinese studies in the third grade and were unanimous in their desire to attend university outside of Tibet as a result of the low level of education in Tibet.
In March to May 1997, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy conducted a survey of 50 exile Tibetan children who had fled from Tibet in the previous two or three years, questioning them about their educational experiences in Tibet. The results reveal that already the use of Tibetan language in schools in Tibet has been drastically eroded.
While the teaching language in primary schools sponsored by the local community (mangtsug) is mostly in Tibetan, in most of the government-sponsored primary schools in Tibet (zhungtsug) the main teaching language is Chinese. Of the survey group, 53 percent of the students who attended a primary school were taught in Chinese medium.
The situation at the middle school level was of even greater concern. The vast majority of middle schools in Tibet, with the exception of 40 'special schools' in Amdo (incorporated into the Chinese province of Qinghai), use Chinese as their main teaching language. Of those interviewed students who had been able to attend a middle school in Tibet, only 17 percent reported that the main teaching language in their school was Tibetan. Compulsory entrance examinations to middle schools were also conducted in Chinese.
Despite recent proclamations by officials of the Tibet Education Commission that Tibetan language is and will continue to be taught from primary school to university and that "parents always have the possibility of choosing between a class of Tibetan and Chinese mixed or a class only in Tibetan", the phasing out of Tibetan language is now well under way in Tibet's education system. Tibetan children were previously able to study Tibetan language from age six to 13, with Chinese introduced as a second language from age nine. The introduction of bilingual classes from class one, combined with the absence of Tibetan medium at the secondary school level and more recently the tertiary level, means that the goal is now near complete.
It is now more crucial than ever that pressure is exerted on the Chinese government to allow for education of Tibetans in their own language. International law not only recognises the importance of language as a means of education, but also acknowledges that language can be a principal method by which people express their cultural identities. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a States Party, declares that a child's education shall be directed to the "development and respect for the child's ... cultural identity, language and values". By denying education to Tibetan students in their mother tongue the Chinese authorities are disregarding the students' educational and cultural rights and directly violating their international legal obligations.
Issued by:
TIBETAN CENTRE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY
Dharamsala, India
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