25
Separated From Their Families, Hidden From The World: China’s Colonial Boarding Schools In Tibet Come Under UN Scrutiny - Feddit
feddit.deThe colonial boarding schools in Tibet will have enormous psychological impact
and emotional trauma on Tibetan children, has implications for whole generations
of Tibetans and the long-term survival of the Tibetan identity, a new report
grimly predicts. It makes the following points: - Tibet’s education system has
become primarily residential according to official Chinese data, and
approximately 800,000 Tibetan students aged 6-18 (78%) are living in such
schools; - Tibetan parents are compelled to send their children to such schools
for lack of alternatives, and also due to threats and intimidation from the
authorities; - Students are at risk of losing their mother tongue since classes
are primarily in Chinese, they live apart from their communities, are unable to
practice their religion and are subjected to a highly politicized curriculum to
make them identify as Chinese; - Tibetan students speak of physical and sexual
abuse in the boarding schools, long hours designed to exhaust and make children
succumb and break them from their parents.
The hope is international pressure generated could force China to clean up its
act and Tibetan activists say there is some evidence of that. But in the end
Beijing’s gestures may only be cosmetic. The overall intent and goal of its
Tibet policy is clear and can be summed up in two words: Sinicization and
assimilation.
Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/5674446
Oh look, and just yesterday I was arguing with a Tankie who insisted that Tibetans living in Tibet actually love China.