OPINION
As the future of Tibet’s cultural identity is increasingly being shaped not in monasteries or family homes, but inside classrooms where political indoctrination is steadily replacing native language education, Ashu Maan* points out that international human rights standards offer a clear framework for evaluating such development and calls for China’s Patriotic Education Law, passed on Oct 24, 2023, its 2025 Preschool Education Law extending this requirement down to kindergarten level, and the Law on Ethnic Unity and Progress set to come into force on Jul 1 this year, be subjected to these standards for their legitimacy.
The future of Tibet’s cultural identity is increasingly being shaped not in monasteries or family homes, but inside classrooms where political indoctrination is steadily replacing native language education.
The policy framework driving this shift is no longer merely administrative. China’s Patriotic Education Law, passed on 24 October 2023 and signed by President Xi Jinping, came into effect on 1 January 2024. It requires that “all levels and types of school shall have patriotic education permeate the entire course of school education” and that patriotic content be “integrated into all subjects.”
A 2025 Preschool Education Law extended this requirement down to kindergarten level. For Tibetan communities, this nationwide mandate carries a sharper edge: it accelerates the displacement of Tibetan language instruction by making political content a non-negotiable feature of every classroom hour.
The consequences on the ground are already documented. In September 2023, Chinese authorities banned the teaching and use of the Tibetan language at elementary and middle schools in Kardze and Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan Province. Previously, state-run schools in these regions taught not only Tibetan language classes but also all core subjects — mathematics, science, physics, geography, history, and social studies in Tibetan.
Teachers and parents were not officially informed about this major change in policy but were simply told verbally to implement it at the start of the new academic year. Tibetan teachers proficient in Mandarin were reassigned to teach in Chinese, while those without sufficient Mandarin skills were effectively dismissed and left without teaching opportunities.
As schools reopened in early 2025, Chinese authorities intensified their patriotic education campaign further. Teachers are now required to submit monthly self-reports to higher authorities confirming they are not imparting religious teachings, while both students and staff are compelled to renounce religious beliefs and practices.
A new directive titled “Two Absolute Prohibitions and Five Strictly Forbidden Items” explicitly forbids any religious practice or symbolism in schools. Authorities are also instructing teachers and students to abandon what the state labels religious and “superstitious” thinking — a directive that targets Tibetan Buddhism directly.
As classroom hours are finite, every mandatory political session displaces something else. Subjects once devoted to Tibetan heritage are being reduced or absorbed into state-approved narratives emphasising national unity and ideological conformity. This creates a structural conflict: the more time schools devote to patriotic education, the less remains for Tibetan literature, grammar, history, and oral tradition. The consequences extend beyond language proficiency.
Language is the foundation through which cultural memory, historical understanding, and community values pass from one generation to the next. When Tibetan children spend less time learning their native tongue, their connection to centuries of philosophical texts, oral traditions, religious scholarship, and local customs becomes increasingly fragile. Classical Tibetan literature — one of Asia’s richest — contains philosophical, historical, and religious achievements accumulated over more than a millennium.
If younger generations are denied meaningful opportunities to engage with this heritage, its long-term survival becomes genuinely uncertain. International human rights standards offer a clear framework for evaluating these developments. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises children’s right to develop their cultural identity and use their own language.
International minority rights norms support access to mother-tongue education and protection from coercive ideological interference in learning environments. Freedom of thought is also at stake. Freedom House has documented that university professors and school teachers in Tibet cannot touch certain topics and many must attend political indoctrination sessions, while the government restricts course materials to suppress unofficial versions of Tibetan history.
When schools become instruments of compulsory ideological conformity, children’s ability to form independent views — and to maintain meaningful connections to their own cultural heritage — is directly compromised.
Education experts worldwide consistently find that mother-tongue instruction during early childhood improves academic outcomes, cognitive development, and literacy.
Restricting access to Tibetan-medium education raises educational concerns alongside cultural ones. Protecting Tibetan language learning does not require isolating students from broader opportunities. Multilingual education systems around the world successfully combine native language instruction with national and international languages — these goals are complementary, not contradictory.
Meaningful reform requires specific, concrete steps. The Patriotic Education Law’s reach into minority classrooms should be reviewed against international standards for educational freedom and cultural rights. The bans on Tibetan language instruction in Kardze, Ngaba, and Golog should be reversed. Teachers dismissed for lacking Mandarin proficiency should be reinstated. Requirements that teachers submit ideological self-reports or renounce religious beliefs as a condition of employment should be ended.
Tibetan language classes should be expanded, not eliminated, with Tibetan literature, history, and cultural studies occupying a central place in the curriculum. Independent curriculum review mechanisms, involving Tibetan educators, language specialists, parents, and civil society, are essential to ensure that educational content serves both academic excellence and cultural preservation rather than political goals.
Tibetan children deserve classrooms that celebrate their heritage rather than marginalise it. Protecting Tibetan language education is a matter of cultural survival, human dignity, and fundamental rights. Restoring native language learning and ending politically coercive educational practices would represent an important step toward safeguarding Tibet’s unique cultural legacy for future generations.
—
* Ashu Mann is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. He was awarded the Vice Chief of the Army Staff Commendation card on Army Day 2025. His research focuses include the India-China territorial dispute, great power rivalry, and Chinese foreign policy. His current research area is China with a particular focus on China’s atrocities in Tibet.