Violations concerning form of education


CHAPTER 4


A. CHINESE AS THE TEACHING LANGUAGE

Teaching is a form of communication. It is the teacher's task to communicate a certain amount of given information to the student and the student is only capable of being educated if she or he understands the language the teacher is speaking.

In most of the government-sponsored primary schools in Tibet the main teaching language is Chinese, whereas in primary schools sponsored by the local community the teaching language is mostly Tibetan. Of the survey group, 53 percent of the students who attended a primary school were taught in Chinese.

The situation is of greater concern at the middle school level. The vast majority of middle schools in Tibet use Chinese as their main teaching language. The exceptions are 40 'special schools' in Amdo (renamed by China as Qinghai) using Tibetan as their main mode of teaching. In the "TAR", there are few middle schools using Tibetan as their main teaching language. Of the interviewed students who had attended a middle school in Tibet, only 17 % attended a middle school where the main teaching language was Tibetan.

Tibetan and Chinese are two totally different languages based on different systems of writing. Tibetan, developed in the 7th century from Sanskrit is based on an alphabetical system of scripture. In Chinese, a much older language, each word is instead represented by a particular character. Chinese is consequently very much a foreign language for Tibetan students.

Tibetan children generally do not speak any Chinese when they commence schooling. They experience many problems in following lessons and sitting exams in Chinese and are thereby placed at a constant disadvantage relative to the Chinese students. This problem is particularly striking at middle schools where the Tibetan students are shown to fall rapidly behind the Chinese students.

China's National Autonomy Law provides that even the curriculum content of schooling for minorities can be selected by the minority. Moreover, the Nationality Minority Law states that whenever the majority of students in a particular school constitute minority nationalities, then one "ought to use textbooks in the relevant minority language and the minority language as the medium of instruction."

The reality is something different in Tibet. School curricula is uniform throughout Chinese schools and Tibetans have no freedom to select the subjects or contents taught. Chinese is used as the medium of instruction with the present exception of primary schools and selected "special" secondary schools.

As a result of language disadvantages, Tibetan students are often placed together into "lower stream" classes and assigned inferior facilities and less qualified teachers. This, in turn, contributes to the high failure rate of the Tibetan students.

It was reported in 1986 that in Middle School No. 1 of Lhasa, of a total of 1,451 students, of which 933 are Tibetans, 387 Tibetans did not study any Tibetan. Of the 111 teachers, only thirty are Tibetan and a mere seven actually teach Tibetan. In Lhasa's Primary School No.1, there were 1000 Tibetans and 900 Chinese. Two hundred Tibetans did not learn Tibetan and of the 136 teachers only 18 teach Tibetan.44

International law not only recognises the importance of language as a means of education, but also acknowledges that language can be a principal method by which people express their cultural identities. Language is also one of the minority rights explicitly recognised in article 27 of the ICCPR. By refusing to educate the Tibetan students in their mother tongue the Chinese authorities are violating both the educational and cultural rights of the children.

    "My primary school was a Chinese government school. The school had 200 Tibetan students and 37 teachers of whom 22 were Chinese. I received lessons in Tibetan, maths and Chinese. The main teaching language in school was Chinese. I did not understand the Chinese language well enough so I had to ask the teacher again and again. If most of the Tibetans did not understand his explanation in Chinese he used to scold us, calling us 'dirty Tibetans' or 'stupid Tibetans' because we did not understand Chinese. " (A43)

    "I was able to follow the lessons in Chinese, but my knowledge of Chinese was not good enough to pass all the exams in Chinese. As a result of having failed Chinese I had to repeat grade 3 and grade 5 of primary school. Although I was very good in all the other subjects, my Chinese was not good enough." (A25)

    "The general teaching language in our class was Tibetan. Besides Tibetan language classes, we had maths and some unknown language that I can't remember the name of." (A17)45

In 1987 the "TAR", supported by the late 10th Panchen Lama, introduced legislation that prioritised Tibetan as the medium of education for Tibetan students. This policy was partly implemented at the primary school level but it was reported in May 1997 that the PRC is intending to reverse this policy.46 At the middle school level, Chinese authorities in Tibet introduced four experimental classes in Tibetan-medium education but this experiment was terminated by the Chinese authorities in 1996.

No satisfying solutions to the Tibetan students' linguistic problems were apparent in the testimonials. In some cases Tibetan students who had a sufficient command of the Chinese language translated the words of the Chinese teacher to their fellow peers. One student reported:

    "The general teaching language at our school was Chinese. There were Tibetan students who could not speak any Chinese and were not able to communicate with the teachers. Since the Chinese teachers refused to speak Tibetan, Tibetan students who spoke Chinese had to translate what the teacher was saying." (A6)

This form of teaching is clearly unsuitable for the Tibetan students. There is no direct communication between the Chinese teacher and the Tibetan student and the translating student is limited to translating only that which he or she understands. If the translator misunderstands the teacher's lesson, his or her Tibetan peers will be given incorrect information. The translating student and those for whom s/he is translating are bound to fall behind under this system.

In some cases the Chinese teachers did not trouble themselves with the language problems of the Tibetan students. The following extracts from testimony cases reveal that the Chinese-speaking teacher cared little for the fact that some of the Tibetan students were not able to follow the lesson.

    "In the first two grades maths was taught in Tibetan. When I entered school I did not speak any Chinese and in the Chinese language class they only taught us little words. So when I entered grade three I only spoke a little Chinese. Still the maths class was held in Chinese. I did not understand anything that the Chinese teacher said and could only sit idle in class and wait for the class to finish. As a consequence I used to fail all of my maths tests. The teacher did not do anything to change the situation of the Tibetans. He just said that it was good luck for the students who spoke Chinese and that it was bad luck for those who did not speak any Chinese. In Chinese class I just passed; in Tibetan I was quite good. Today, in the TCV, I am taught maths in Tibetan, and I like it a lot." (A27)

    "In my class there were 40 students of whom one was Chinese. Most of our teachers were Chinese and the main teaching language was Chinese. We had Tibetan language class two periods a week but even in the Tibetan language classes we had to speak Chinese." (A25)


B. DISCRIMINATION AGAINST TIBETANS

The principle of non-discrimination forms the basis of many human rights principles, particularly with regard to economic, social and cultural rights. Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the importance of this principle as does article 2(1) of the CRC, which states that:

    States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

The effective fulfilment of the right to education requires non-discriminatory access to public education facilities. The importance of the principle of non-discrimination with regard to educational rights finds expression in article 28(1) of the CRC which places an obligation on States Parties to recognise the right of the child to education with a view to achieving the right progressively 'on the basis of equal opportunity'. All other aspects of the child's right to education laid down in article 28 (1) of the CRC thus follow on from this fundamental tenet.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has adopted a Convention and Recommendation against Discrimination in Education which defines educational discrimination as: "any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which being based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education and in particular:
1. Of depriving any person or group of persons of access to education of any type or at any level;
2. Of limiting any person or group of persons to education of an inferior standard;
3. Of inflicting on any person or group of persons conditions which are incompatible with the dignity of man." 47

Discrimination against Tibetan children in Tibet is made possible by the existence of two particular factors: that public education in Tibet is not organised by the Tibetans themselves and that Tibetans today represent a minority in their country. It has been reported that children belonging to a minority are more likely to be the victims of educational discrimination.48 It has even be noted that, "experience shows that governments tend to use the system of education as a means to systematically discriminate against ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities... . If governments wish to prevent certain groups from equally participating in the political, social, economic or cultural life in their countries, one of the most efficient methods is to deny them equal access to education... ." 49

In its Concluding Observations on China, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expresses concern "about reports that school attendance in minority areas, including the Tibet Autonomous Region is lagging behind, that quality of education is inferior and that insufficient efforts have been made to develop a bilingual education system which would include adequate teaching in Chinese. These shortcomings may make Tibetan and other minority pupils disadvantaged when applying for entry to secondary and higher level schools."50 The Committee states that "Steps should be taken to protect these children [in the "TAR"] from discrimination and to ensure their access to higher education on an equal footing".51

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in its Concluding Observations on China similarly expresses concern that "in secondary school and university levels children from minority nationalities are underrepresented" and that "the instruction provided on the history and culture of minority nationalities in the curricula is not adequate as compared to the education provided concerning the history and culture of persons of the Han nationality."52

Fifty-eight percent of the students interviewed reported that they had felt discriminated against in relation to Chinese students while in schools in Tibet. Some of the interviewed students went to all-Tibetan schools or all-Tibetan classes and thus had little chance of being discriminated against.

Students described various methods by which the Tibetan students were discriminated against. Firstly, the Chinese students were often provided with better books. If there were new books, these were given to the Chinese students while the Tibetans made do with the old and torn copies. There were also cases where the Tibetan students had to pay for their books while the Chinese received them for free.

    "... the Chinese students were always provided with the better books. When we asked why, we were given the excuse that the Chinese were more intelligent." (A 1)

    "The Tibetans had to pay much more for their books. They had to pay twice the price the Chinese students had to pay for their books." (A6)<

    "The Chinese students received the better books and the better chairs, while the Tibetans received the old books and the broken chairs." (A 10)

Secondly the Chinese students were reported to have often received better furniture. If there was not enough furniture for all of the students in a school, only the Chinese students or those in classes consisting mainly of Chinese students were given the chairs and tables. Tibetan students would be required to sit on the floor or would be asked to pay for the use of a chair and a table.

    "When new Tibetan students came to our school, they had to sit on the floor. New Chinese students received right away their own chairs and tables. In the dormitory new Tibetan students had to sleep for some time on the floor, while Chinese students were always assigned a bed." (A5)

    "We had one Chinese and one Tibetan class. If new books arrived the Chinese students were given the new books. We only received the old books from the Chinese. In class one and two the Tibetan class had no chairs and no tables to write on. We had to bring mattresses from home to sit on. The Chinese were given everything from class one on." (A15)

    "At school the teachers demanded 50 yuan a month to sit on a chair, 50 yuan to have a table and another 25 yuan for the books." (A23)

Another discriminatory method described was for school officials to demand payment from Tibetans for things broken at school. This practice was said to have applied to Tibetan students alone or in differentiating amounts.

    "If a Chinese student broke a chair or a book, the government would pay for the new chair or book. If we Tibetans broke anything we had to pay for it ourselves." (A15)

    "If there was a broken window, or a new class broom was needed, the teachers collected money from the Tibetan students to pay for this. The Chinese students never had to pay anything." ( A6)

    "One time a Chinese girl broke a window. She only had to pay the price of a new window which was five yuan. When a Tibetan girl later broke the same window, she had to pay 25 yuan." (A 4)

The most crucial form of discrimination was the reported practice of teachers placing far more effort on the teaching of the Chinese students at the expense of the Tibetans.

    "The teacher explained more to the Chinese students than to the Tibetan students." (A36)

    "The Chinese teachers gave the Chinese students more attention. When we asked the Chinese teacher questions, he would not answer us. When the Chinese students asked questions, he responded." (A13)

    "The Chinese teachers taught the Chinese classes better than the Tibetan classes. The Chinese teachers taught always in Chinese and of course the Chinese students understood the teacher much better than we did. Also, when the Chinese students did not understand something, they could ask the teacher questions and the teacher would repeat what he had said to the students. When the teachers spoke Chinese in our Tibetan classroom, most of the students did not understand him. Yet no one dared to ask him questions for fear for punishment and the teachers never repeated anything to the Tibetan classes. Naturally the Tibetans failed more often than the Chinese and the Chinese teacher would then say that he did not understand why the Tibetan students could not understand such simple things. He also said that the Chinese were more intelligent than the Tibetans." (A27)

The Chinese students were also reported as having often received better food. Considering that children are still in the process of growing, a healthy and adequate diet is critical for the physical and mental development of a child and this therefore represents a serious discrimination.

    "The Chinese students were given better food. The school kitchen prepared different food for the Chinese and the Tibetan students. The Chinese students received different kinds of good food with a lot of meat. Tibetans always received the same food of boiled radish and potatoes. We never received meat." (A 5)

    "The buildings of the Chinese school were better and also their food and clothing was better. In our school we received Chinese food and often I found worms in my food. The facilities in our Tibetan middle school were so poor that the Tibetan students decided to demonstrate." (A 43)

Other forms of discrimination such as the imposition of school fees and denial of Tibetan cultural and linguistic identity are discussed in Chapter 3 and in Part E of Chapter 4 respectively.


C. IRREGULARITY OF EDUCATION: TEACHERS NOT ATTENDING CLASSES

The obligation on China as a State Party to the CRC to provide education to its citizens does not only extend to the provision of school buildings and teaching personnel. It also requires that China supervise the process of education to ensure that proper education is provided. This includes the supervision of the teaching at the classroom level. The ICESCR states, in article 2 (e), that

    ... the development of a system of schools at all levels shall be actively pursued, an adequate fellowship system shall be established, and the material conditions of teaching staff shall be continuously improved.

When one considers China's effective and well-developed bureaucracy, a lack of supervision of schools in Tibet is difficult to explain. In 1992 China promulgated the Teachers Act, containing detailed provisions on teachers' qualifications and examinations and their social status and treatment, with a view to ensuring that children receive education of a high standard. 53 Nonetheless there were many cases reported of teachers either not attending their classes or, if attended, of failing to provide teaching. While this is not an obvious violation of the children's right to education, it illustrates an apathy to educating school children in Tibet that contradicts the basic principles of the CRC.

    "Often the teachers did not teach the class. He would go to a function or to attend some entertainment. As a consequence we had two or three recess periods every day." (A7)

    "The lessons of the Tibetan teachers took place regularly, but the Chinese teachers never turned up after lunch break." (A10)

    "The Chinese teacher would often sleep in class. For example, when we had a two-hour Chinese lesson, the teacher would give one hour and in the second hour he would sleep. This happened every day." (A1)

    "Though we were expected to have six periods a day, most days only two periods were taught. The Tibetan teachers mostly came to class. But the Chinese teachers were away 'sick' three or four times a week. Even if they came to class, very often they would only sit in class and refuse to teach. And often the Chinese teachers would go home for the last two periods of the day." (A13)

    "When the teachers went on their tea break, most of them did not come back to class after the break." (A29)

It must be kept in mind too that a large number of the "teachers" in Tibet are in fact not properly qualified. It was reported by the official Tibet Review in 1986 that; "In the whole of the TAR, there are over 9000 teachers of various levels, far fewer then the actual number required. Fifty percent of these teachers are not qualified enough."54

Sometimes children themselves take on the role of "teacher". The newest addition to the teachers' department in the local mantsug in Nyen village in Toelung Dechen county under Lhasa City prefecture is a student who just graduated from a zhungtsug. Each student must pay one yuan for this student-teacher even though he is not included on the school's list of teachers.55

D. DISCIPLINARY MEASURES

The issue of the suitability of corporal punishment within a child's education is not specifically addressed in the CRC. However, where corporal punishment is deemed necessary, it must, in accordance with the convention, be applied in a manner which respects the child's human dignity. Moreover, the child must be protected from mental or physical abuse, and from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

    Art. 28(2): States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

    Art. 19: States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

    Art. 37: States Parties shall ensure that:

    a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The PRC claims that corporal punishment is de jure illegal in China. In addition to constitutional articles for the protection of children, article 16 of China's Compulsory Education Law states "[i]t shall be forbidden to inflict physical punishment on students" and article 20 of the Rules on Implementation of the Compulsory Education Law specifies that "[t]he school and the teacher are not allowed to inflict upon students physical or covert physical punishment or other acts that violate their physical dignity."

The de facto situation regarding punishment in Chinese schools in Tibet appears quite different. In violation of article 28 of the CRC, teachers under the Chinese administration reportedly resort to extreme forms of punishment defiant of the most basic standards of human dignity for little or no apparent reason.

i. The extent of corporal punishment

Forty-seven per cent of the students interviewed who had visited a primary school said that they had experienced degrading, humiliating or brutal forms of corporal punishment. This did not appear to be isolated to a particular region in Tibet, nor was there any significant differentiation between urban and rural areas. Some of the students also reported that the teachers made no distinction between punishment of male and female students.

Students described a significant difference between the actions of Chinese teachers and Tibetan teachers. Chinese teachers reportedly resorted more often to severe forms of corporal punishment than Tibetan teachers and the most brutal forms of corporal punishment were committed, in the most part, by Chinese teachers.

Testimonials suggest that corporal punishment is less prevalent in mangstug schools (locally sponsored primary schools), which employ mainly Tibetan teachers, than in zhungtsug schools, (government sponsored primary schools), which rely more on Chinese teachers.

ii. Reasons for corporal punishment

Just as the CRC does not prohibit the use of corporal punishment as a means of educational discipline, nor does it specify minimum standards whereby punishment may be applied. While the use of corporal punishment for minor misdeeds does not amount per se to a violation of article 28 (2) of the CRC, where punishment is regularly applied for little or no cause, this can constitute a violation of the child's human dignity.

Some children interviewed recalled that they were physically punished for any minor reason: being late to school; speaking or eating in class; neglecting their homework. Sometimes students reported that they were punished for no reason at all and two students reported that they were severely beaten because the teacher was in a bad mood.

    "Sometimes the teacher came to class in a bad mood. You always saw his bad mood in his face. Then he would take students and tell them to carry their chair above their head. If they dropped the chair or if they fainted he would beat them with a big stick." (A 24)

    "One of our teachers drank liqueur in the classroom. He was drunk about three times a week. Another teacher also drank alcohol in class but was not really drunk so often. In the afternoon the teacher used to sleep. When the teacher was drunk he used to beat us up. Because I was the oldest in our class, he particularly liked to beat me very badly and he would tell me that I was a "pig". The teacher could afford liqueur because the Chinese paid him well enough. He worked together with the Chinese. The Tibetan teacher helped the Chinese and therefore the Chinese gave him money." (A 18)

    "When we did not do our homework properly we were kicked and beaten with chairs. Most of the time the teachers hit us on the stomach or the back but sometimes he hit us also on the head. This was the most dangerous because often the wounds had to be stitched. Some students fainted and some had to vomit after these beatings." (A 13).

iii. Forms of corporal punishment

The interviewed students reported horrifying forms of corporal punishment endured in Tibet. Even primary school students, children between 6 and 12 years, were subjected to beatings using rubber clubs, whips, belts, electric wires, chair legs, whole chairs, bamboo sticks and other instruments. The students were beaten all over the body.

    "... the Chinese teacher made us stand on a chair with bricks on our head and in our outstretched hands. When a brick fell, we were beaten. The Chinese teacher used different things to beat us with: a rubber whip, an electric wire or the leg of a chair. We were beaten all over the body. Many times I had to go to the hospital after being beaten by the Chinese teacher and two or three times I had to be hospitalised. I know of a boy who had to stay two weeks in hospital because of his beatings and another boy who had two legs fractured. Girls were beaten the same way." (A1)

Children interviewed reported that Tibetan students were punished more harshly than the Chinese students:

    "If a Chinese and a Tibetan made the same mistakes, the Tibetan received more punishment." (A9)

    "The Tibetan students were beaten more severely than the Chinese students." (A13)

    "For the same mistake a Tibetan student would get three whips, while the Chinese student only received one whip." (A1)

The extent of the corporal punishments habitually bore no relation to the seriousness of the offence:

    "Very often the teacher would not come to class and so sometimes we would be walking around. If the teacher suddenly came back and caught us walking around he would punish us. He always punished me in the same way: two students took my legs, two students took my arms and then they lifted me up so that the teacher could beat me with an electric wire on my behind. This hurt very much. Once I was hurt so badly that I could not sit on a chair for three days." (A16)

    "The teachers punished us because we had visited a Tibetan monastery. They made us stand outside the school building from nine o'clock in the morning until six o'clock at night without any food or drink. It was very sunny and warm at that time and so it was very hard for us to stand in the bright sun all day. Luckily no one lost consciousness." (A42)

Children were not only beaten. They were also asked to fulfil particularly exhausting tasks. For example, it seemed to be a very common punishment to ask the students to lift heavy things:

    "When we were late in the morning we were punished in the following way. We had to take two heavy stones in our hands, lift up our arms, and kneel down in front of the class for 15 to 30 minutes. When we dropped a stone we were beaten with a belt or a stick and we had to do it again." (A 9)

    "When we were punished, we either had to carry chairs or heavy stones in our hands or we were made to run around the school ground. The Tibetan students had to run around the school ground without stopping for three hours. When a student broke down, or fainted, the teacher threw some water into his face, and, when he regained consciousness, made him run again." (A 6)

Two students reported having to kneel in front of the class in pieces of broken glass as punishment:

    "One time, on the way to the toilet, a Chinese student tripped over me accidentally. He went up to a Chinese teacher and told him that I had made him fall. The teacher made me get some sand and he mixed the sand with pieces of broken glass and water. This muddy mixture was then spread out on the floor. I had to kneel for one hour in this mud. The glass cut into my knees and into my feet It hurt very much and my knees were bleeding. The teacher told me that if I moved because it hurt I would have to kneel for an even longer time. I still dream about it. ... I stayed in hospital for four weeks due to some infection. Another Tibetan boy had received the same punishment ... The glass had gone all the way to the bone and infected it and later the boy's leg had to be amputated from the knee down." (A4)

    "When we did not do our homework properly, the Chinese teacher would scold us until late at night. When we returned home we were very tired and naturally we were not always able to learn our lessons for the following day. The next morning the teacher asked us about our lessons. When we did not know them the teacher took some bottles, crushed them down into little pieces of glass and put these pieces of glass on the floor of the classroom. He then made me, or a group of us, kneel down in front of the class in the broken glass and walk around on our knees for the whole period of 45 minutes. Sometimes only one student had to do this, sometimes almost all of the class. Back then I was 8 years old. Afterwards I had little pieces of glass stuck under my skin so I had to go to the doctor." (A 27)

One girl reported that teachers used punishments as a pretext to sexually abuse female students:

    "... the older senior student girls were treated differently by some Chinese teachers. I know of some cases where the Chinese teacher went in to the bedrooms of the older Tibetan girls and sexually abused the Tibetan girls. In the classroom the Chinese teachers punished the girls differently from the boys. The girls had to take off their pants and stand half-naked in the classroom so that the Chinese teacher could spank them on the naked lower half of their body. I have been lucky for I have never been sexually abused by any Chinese teacher." (A10)


E. DENIAL OF CULTURAL MINORITY RIGHTS

Minority groups are, by their nature, more susceptible to human rights violations. Frequently under-represented or unrepresented in the larger community, they therefore lack input into national decision-making and are at risk of being assimilated into the more powerful majority group. Children of a minority represent an even more vulnerable group and are thus in particular need of protection, as recognised in the CRC:

    Art. 30: In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.

The massive population transfer of Chinese into Tibet has meant that today the estimated 7.5 million Chinese settlers outnumber the 6 million Tibetans. The situation has been deemed a "cultural genocide"56 as Tibetans each day lose more and more of their folk customs, their religious traditions and their language; 'sinocised' by the majority Chinese who hold the economic and political power. The need to educate Tibetan children on their cultural heritage is critical if the culture is to survive even one more generation.

Violations of Tibetan children's minority rights take many different forms. All of the children who had visited government-sponsored primary schools reported that they were not allowed to honour any Tibetan holidays except for Losar, the Tibetan new year. At the same time, they were forced to celebrate Chinese holidays. This applied even in schools where there were no Chinese students at all.

Seventy-eight percent of the students who visited a government-sponsored primary school reported that they were forbidden to wear Tibetan clothes to school. This was not because there was any school uniform and children were in fact permitted to wear whatever they liked so long as it was not Tibetan-style clothing. Some students reported that they were corporally punished by their teachers for wearing Tibetan clothes to school, while others said that they had to wear Tibetan dress when Chinese officials or foreigners came to visit the school.

Suppression of Tibetans' minority rights also took the form of denying students their religious rights to visit a temple, prohibiting Tibetans at boarding school from consuming Tibetan food, and forcing Tibetan children to renounce Tibetan history or the Dalai Lama. Sometimes Tibetan students were not even allowed to read books in Tibetan language. Students also recalled the name-calling by teachers; being told that Tibetans were stupid, dirty or inferior human beings.

    "At school we were never allowed to wear Tibetan clothes. We had to wear Chinese clothes. If we wore Tibetan clothes we were punished. Only when we had to present some dances to Chinese officials were we allowed to wear Tibetan clothes. Another thing was that we were not allowed to celebrate any Tibetan holidays. The only Tibetan holiday we were allowed to celebrate was Losar, the Tibetan new year. But we had to celebrate Chinese holidays. This was OK since we got free from school." (A15)

    "During winter time, when it was very cold, we were allowed to wear our Tibetan clothes. The teacher often called us bad names when we were wearing them, telling us that we looked backward and stupid." (A46)

    "We always had to drink Chinese tea. We were never allowed to have Tibetan (butter) tea." (A5)

    "If most of the Tibetans did not understand his [the teacher's] explanation in Chinese, he used to scold us. He called us 'dirty Tibetans' or 'stupid Tibetans', because we did not understand Chinese." (A43)

    "At school the teacher asked us to renounce the Dalai Lama. If we did not do so, we feared that the authorities would arrest our parents." (A35)


F. DENIAL OF RELIGIOUS RIGHTS AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

The Convention on the Rights of the Child places a strong emphasis on the child's freedom of thought and religion. It states:

    Art. 14(1): States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion...

    Art. 30: In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority ... shall not be denied the right ... to profess and practice his or her own religion ...

School teachers must respect a child's freedom to hold certain beliefs even where they may be contrary to the teacher's own. Children are not, by reason of their age and lack of experience, incapable of forming their own opinions on different topics and the CRC recognises that it is not the purpose of the state, and thus state educators, to repress this freedom .

Before China entered Tibet in 1949, Buddhist religion played an intrinsic role in the whole of Tibetan society. The Dalai Lama was spiritual leader and monarch at the same time and monasteries were not only spiritual centres but also unique educational institutions. Individuals were free to practise their religious beliefs in every stage of life and the religious traditions were passed down from adult to child.

This situation has been drastically affected by Chinese occupation. In its Concluding Observations on China, the Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed "its deep concern in connection with violations of human rights of the Tibetan religious minority" and commented, "State intervention in religious principles and procedures seems to be most unfortunate for the whole generation among the Tibetan population."57


i. Monastic schools

Before 1949 monastic education played a very important role in Tibet with every third child becoming a monk and attending a monastic school. Since Chinese occupation, with only 300 of Tibet's 6000 monasteries still standing and access strictly regulated by Chinese authorities, a child's desire to become a monk or nun guarantees little.

He or she must first seek Chinese authorisation and, where granted, is then subjected to a forcible "patriotic re-education campaign" within the monastery. The child must: oppose separatism; acknowledge the unity of Tibet and China; recognise the Chinese appointed Panchen Lama; deny that Tibet was or should be independent and agree that the Dalai Lama is destroying the unity of the people. Over 280 student monks under the age of 16 were expelled from their monasteries by Chinese authorities in 1996 and were thereby denied their religious education.58

Most of the students interviewed reported that it was not possible for them to visit a monastic school. Some reported that it might have been possible for them to visit a monastic school if their parents had paid very high bribes to the authorities.

    "My parents were not free to send me to the school of their choice. It was the Chinese authorities who sent us to a particular school. Even if I would have liked to attend a monastic school I would have not been allowed to do so." (A9)

    "I know a boy who wanted to go to a monastic school but the Chinese authorities would not let him. His parents had to pay a lot of money before he was allowed to attend a monastic school." (A13)

    " I don't know if I could have gone to a monastic school. A couple of years ago I probably could have gone, but since the change of policy of the Chinese it is very difficult now. In order to go to a monastic school one has to get permission from the Chinese government. They limit the maximum number of students in every monastery." (A41)

    "If I wanted to attend a monastic school now, in 1997, I would definitely not be allowed to do so. The Chinese changed the policy. There is a maximum number of people who are allowed to enter a monastery." (A43)

    "Before I left Tibet I was a monk studying Tibetan in a big monastery near Lhasa.. The Chinese police came to the monastery and told me that I was only allowed to stay if I would speak against His Holiness the Dalai Lama. I could not speak against His Holiness and so I left." (A38)

ii. Public schools

Students reported that the right to freedom of religion and thought in public schools in Tibet is repressed through a variety of methods. The PRC has adopted a policy which discredits the Dalai Lama and penalises the possession of Dalai Lama pictures. Tibetan children are prohibited from celebrating any of their religious holidays. Questions in school examinations require answers which follow certain ideological beliefs.

    "When the Chinese teacher found a Dalai Lama picture on a student, he would, even when it was still allowed to have Dalai Lama photos, put the photo into his shoes and tell us that the Dalai Lama is dirt." (A5)

    "The Chinese teachers in school told us ... that the Dalai Lama was bad and that he was a criminal." (A14)

    "The teacher told us that... 'all the Tibetans do not like the Dalai Lama. You should go home and tell your parents that the Dalai Lama is no good'." (A32)

    "We were not able to express our opinions. They made us learn things about the life of Mao, and examined us about this. The grades in examinations depended on our answers to ideological questions about Mao and the Chinese socialism." (A4)

    "My examinations depended on ideological questions. For example, if I were to write in my exam that China is a bad country and not a good country, I would get beaten up by my teacher." (A10)

    "If we answered the ideological questions the wrong way, we were beaten up by the teacher." (A18)

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Last updated: 29-Sept-97