DHARAMSHALA: Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay, who is also the Kalon for Education, inaugurated the Tibetan School Heads Meeting organised by the Department of Education, today at the Gangkyi staff conference hall.

Speaking at the meeting, Kalon Tripa said the idea for this meeting came about when he called a meeting of Tibetan principals last year. At that time, the principals expressed their strong need for more such meetings in the future. Therefore, we’ve duly arranged this meeting, he said.

He noted that the Tibetan schools have come a long way in the last 50 years due to the efforts made by the teachers, Tibetans as well as Indians and by the Central Tibetan Administration. He added that a lot more still needs to be done.

“We have a major responsibility but if we don’t have the intellectual capacity and the human resources, we will not be able to represent ourselves and the six million Tibetans inside Tibet,” he said.

He said that the idea of establishing distinct Tibetan schools and settlements by His Holiness is to preserve Tibetan tradition yet at the same time acquire modern education. It is an effort to balance tradition and modernity.

He said that the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not just to increase the literacy levels of the Tibetan community. The main aim is to produce professionals who can represent Tibetans on both national and international levels.

The Tibetan struggle is such that we have to be self-reliant on an international level and press the Chinese government to solve the issue of Tibet peacefully, he asserted.

He also talked about many important issues raised and practiced by many schools like tackling school drop-out rates, introducing new teaching methods, studying the concentration span of students as well as understanding child psychology to retain the articulation and the confidence of students.

The Kalon Tripa also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the Indian government and the Indian people for providing assistance in both humanitarian and political ways, adding, we, the Tibetan people are able to stand on our own feet thanks to their generous contributions.

More than 60 people including principals and rectors of around 40 different schools from India and Nepal as well as Education secretary Ngodup Tsering and Kashag secretary Yuthog Karma Gelek are attending the two day meeting.