Tenzingang, Arunachal Pradesh: Sikyong Penpa Tsering, on the last leg of Tenzingang’s visit, addressed the Sambhota school and later addressed the Tibetan community.
In his address at the school, Sikyong reiterates the 16th Kashag’s endeavour of consolidating small-strength schools to overcome the sustenance concerns of these schools because of the declining number of Tibetan children.
“We endeavour to merge small-strength schools and render quality assurance to school development,” Sikyong said. He further emphasised the maintenance of an updated database for the administration to smoothly facilitate the implementation of major initiatives.
The school has around 205 students, the majority of which are the children of the Monpa community who share an apparent similar culture and language with the Tibetan community. Sikyong advised these children to pay equal attention to safeguarding their indigenous language while they study Tibetan.
While the CTA is pragmatic about merging small schools with larger schools, the administration believes that some support from the state government of the respective school would extensively help sustain the school.
Before addressing the school, Sikyong was taken for an inspection tour of the school campus by headmaster Dorjee Damdul.
Sikyong later addressed the public of Tenzingang in which he emphasised the need for accountability as a democratically elected official and urged people to watch the proceedings of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile carefully to dispel the rumour-mongering.
Considering the appointment of three-women Kalons in his cabinet, Sikyong hailed it as historic and fulfillment of his election mandate prior to his election.
Furthermore, Sikyong reminded the gathering about the profound gratitude of His Holiness the Dalai Lama without whom the exile Tibetan community would not exist and similarly, the older generations for their hard work paving the way for the future generations.
He recounted the history of the Tibetan democracy and its evolution through the years. He also gave an account of the tasks of the various departments.