The Indian Express
NEW DELHI: Tibetan schools funded and run by the Central government will soon be handed over to the Tibetan government-in-exile.
A proposal mooted by the Tibetan government nearly two years back has finally found support in the Human Resource Development Ministry following an intervention from the Ministry of External Affairs.
The then foreign secretary Nirupama Rao, following her 2010 meeting with the Dalai Lama, had written to the HRD Ministry recommending the transfer of these schools to the Tibetan government-in-exile, also known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), Dharamsala. The ministry is now moving a Cabinet note to effect a phase-wise transfer of 71 schools under the Central Tibetan Schools Administration (CTSA) from the HRD Ministry to the CTA.
These 71 schools — spread across Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh — enrol over 8,000 students. The move to cede control of these schools arises also from the fact that the Tibetan government-in-exile has done a reasonably good job of managing a number of its own schools with over 17,000 students.
“The schools run by them are in fact doing very well. Their results are better than the CTSA schools. Hence, it is only pertinent that the CTSA schools are also handed over to them. While the Centre will continue to give them grants, the schools will, under the transfer proposal, be run and operated by the Tibetan government-in-exile. These schools, however, will remain affiliated to the CBSE. The Indian teachers already employed will continue to work there as Tibetan teachers are engaged only for Tibetan language teaching,” a senior official said.