Human Rights Watch (HRW), a well-known rights advocate based in the US has released a new report today titled “China’s ‘Bilingual Education’ Policy in Tibet”. The 91-page report highlights the diminishing use of the Tibetan language and the threat Tibetan-medium schooling face in Tibet. 

The so-called “bilingual education” policy in “Tibet Autonomous Region” (TAR) is a growing threat to the extinction of Tibetans and other ethnic minorities to study in their mother tongue. China’s education policy in TAR is aiding their agenda in replacing Tibetan-medium of teaching with the Chinese language as the medium of instruction in primary schools in the region noted HRW report. 

In an interview conducted by the HRW in September 2019, parents at six primary schools from different townships in northern TAR had reportedly said that the Chinese-medium teaching system was introduced and practiced in their local primary schools in March 2019. However, there isn’t any public official announcement of a government’s policy in the TAR ordering local rural primary schools to conduct their classes in Chinese.

Human Rights Watch reported that the TAR authorities are using a “strategy of cultivated ambiguity in their public statements” while using indirect pressure to push primary schools, allotting an increasing number of ethnic Chinese teachers who do not speak Tibetan in Tibetan schools.

In the year 2010, “bilingual education” was introduced throughout ethnic minority regions under China and hence a gradual shift was observed in China’s education policy in Tibet from Tibetan-medium teaching to Chinese-medium teaching in local primary schools in TAR.

The “bilingual education” policy sounds positive and appealing but in reality, this education policy is nothing but China’s agenda of sinicizing Tibetans in Tibet stated DIIR’s UN, EU & Human Rights Desk staff Ms.Tenzin Dhadon. “To survive and sustain any culture, the protection and promotion of its linguistic heritage are unquestionable. The current education policy of promoting Mandarin Chinese as the common national language is driven by the PRC’s assimilationist language policy,” she said.

According to the report, the CCP mouthpiece Xinhua published a report on the “benefits” of the “bilingual education” in TAR. The Xinhua report further stated that Chinese-medium instruction had already been introduced not just into secondary schools but also to primary school in TAR.

 In 2016 an article by another Chinese state-run media Global Times confirmed that an increasing number of schools, “especially in urban areas, are using Putonghua [standard Chinese] as the primary language of instruction, with Tibetan being used only in classes where the Tibetan language is the topic of the class if it is taught at all.”

The Chinese authorities have already imposed Chinese-medium instruction in primary schools in most of the Tibetan regions. In Golog (Ch: Guolou) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture it was imposed in the year 2019-2020. A similar plan was implemented at Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Prefecture in April 2017. In Yulshul (Ch: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the teaching has been already conducted in Chinese in all schools for years. 

Under the PRC’s Constitution and the Regional Autonomy law for Minority Nationalities, minority languages are protected, however, on the ground reality these same documents also promote the use of Putonghua (Chinese standard) as the national language.

In its 3rd National Human Rights Action Plan (2016-2020) released in September 2016, the PRC stated that the rights of ethnic minorities to learn, use, and develop their own spoken and written languages shall be respected and guaranteed, however, in reality, this is not reflected. The Tibetan language continues to be underrepresented in Tibet under the current education policy. Despite widespread expression of discontent, most notably the self-immolation of Tibetans inside Tibet.

-Filed by the UN, EU & Human Rights Desk, DIIR