(TibetanReview.net, Sep06’24) – China began a new phase of Sinicizing the education curricula in Tibet Autonomous Region in Aug 2014 with the dispatch of teachers from Beijing to teach the Tibetan children. It was a pilot project in which the first group of 50 teachers was sent to the Lhasa-Beijing Experimental Middle School as part of a group-style educational support system for the region, reported China’s official chinadaily.com.cn Sep 6.
While the programme appears to have led to the introduction of better teaching and games and sports facilities, the nub of it was the Sinicization drive in terms of the teaching contents. Mandarin-speaking, Tibetan-ignorant teachers from China obviously cannot be expected to improve the Tibetan children’s understanding of their ethnicity, culture, language, and history.
Since the launch of the pilot programme, the Chinese capital has dispatched nearly 300 education professionals to support teaching at this school alone. The report said these teachers shared their experience and techniques with local teachers and helped drive the area’s educational development.
Presently, Huang Xin, from the Attached Middle School to the Central Academy of Art & Design in Dongcheng district, Beijing, teaches high school history at the Lhasa-Beijing Experimental Middle School. She arrived in Aug 2023 for a two-year serving period, the report said.
And it quoted her as saying, “What I can do is to bring some of the more advanced teaching methods and concepts from Beijing and help them better understand history.”