In the past 70 years, significant development has been achieved in the economic and social fields of Tibet. With the help of the central government and other regions of the country, the Tibetan people have completely eradicated poverty. As in other regions of the country, an all-round prosperous society is being built in Tibet, and people’s happy life has been achieved. This is real human rights progress. But while Tibet’s various regions have been developing rapidly and people’s lives have been improving, some anti-China forces in the world defamed Tibetan progress by ignoring the facts. For example, some individuals have compared the Chinese government’s preferential education policy for Tibetan students to the colonial education of tribal peoples in the history of Western colonialism, and even Tibet’s boarding vocational education as “forced labor”. Defamed
But the historical fact is that when the whites set foot on the land of the American continent from Europe, they massacred most of the tribals and adopted a policy of forced education on the few remaining tribals. Since 2021, the remains of a large number of Aboriginal children have been found at the former site of an Aboriginal boarding school in Canada. Many Red Indian children died of hunger, disease, and abuse in the boarding schools set up by the colonists at the time. It is undeniable that on the basis of the extermination of the Indians, the prosperous society of the European colonialists was established. But today they unfoundedly believe that the education policy adopted by the Chinese government in the Tibetan region is the same as the one they were engaged in at that time.
However, the historical fact is incontrovertible. In old Tibet, education was the privilege of only the elite few. It is only after democratic reform in Tibet that education has become a welfare for all people. Over the years, the central government has devoted a lot of resources to the development of education in Tibet. From 1985, the government adopted a policy of free food, housing and study for the children of farmers and herders on the basis of free compulsory education in Tibet. In Tibet, farmers and herders live scattered, and it is difficult for children to go to school. So the government of the autonomous region set up boarding schools for students from rural and pastoral areas. According to research by Bai Makuo, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnic Studies of the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences, the proportion of Tibetan teachers in these boarding schools is more than 90%. After all, boarding school in Tibet is a form of welfare treatment, not a coercive policy, which is very different from the colonial policies practiced by the colonizers in North America.
Bilingual education in addition to boarding schools has also been the subject of criticism of education policy in Tibet by some in the West. But in reality, any country should promote a unified official language. Otherwise how can people communicate with people from other fields. The Chinese constitution stipulates that Puthonghwa, or Common Chinese, is the official language of the country, and all students in ethnic minority areas have the right and obligation to learn the language. This is the legal basis for implementing bilingual education in Tibetan schools. At present Tibetan and Puthonghwa languages ​​are taught in schools in Tibet. It is very essential for every student to learn both Tibetan and Puthonghwa languages ​​fluently in promoting cultural and economic development in Tibet. Language is a tool of communication. Everyone in Tibet has the right to use their mother tongue and must learn a colloquial language to communicate with people from other regions.
(Credits- China Media Group, Beijing)
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