[Reader-list] Third Posting-Mallica

mallica mishra mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in
Thu Mar 16 13:13:14 IST 2006


   H'lo everyone!My apologies for getting late (a little!) with this one!
   
  My prior posting dealt with the perspectives and programmes of the government of India towards the education of Tibetan refugees in India. This posting will try to map out the strategies and programmes adopted by the Tibetan government-in-exile in India for the education of Tibetan children in India, the rationale for the same and the impact and outcomes of these programmes on the youth who are products of the same.
   
  Tibetan Refugees –Pre-Migration Conditions in Tibet
  The quality of education available to Tibetan children in Tibet appears to be largely poor. According to the Tibetan government in exile, “roughly one-third of the school-aged children in Tibet today continue to receive no education at all. This is due to the remoteness of some Tibetan regions, as also due to the prohibitively high school fees charged by the Chinese authorities. Even when a child can afford fees, bribes and other charges, they must confront blatant discrimination making it difficult or impossible to qualify for secondary or tertiary education. Tibetan children receive virtually no education on their indigenous Tibetan culture and history at the public schools in Tibet. The phasing out of Tibetan language in Tibetan schools and universities indicates the intention of Chinese authorities to deny students the right to be taught in their mother tongue. In an attempt to “sinocise” the Tibetan people, children are targeted for indoctrination ; their freedom of thought;
 religion and expression repressed” (www.tibet.com/humanrights/edutoday/html).
  The state of education can also be surmised from an observation by scholars such as Clothey(2005) who states that in China “minority children still tend to have higher illiteracy and drop-out rates from school than do the majority Han children”. Gaps between minority students, she states, and the Han at the tertiary level are “substantial, with the minority student population underrepresented in the overall university-level student population” (Clothey, 2005:396).
  The schools available for the Tibetan children in Tibet have been termed by Peter Lafitte as “schools of failure, consciously designed to foster failure” such that “they can hardly be improved upon”(Lafitte, 1999). As per Director Yeshi of the Dharamsala’s Children’s Village, education in Tibet has been effectively streaming out many local children.’ The Tibetans are gradually been pushed out to the backyards, “there are two systems of schools: one for the Chinese, where you have some prospect of going on to higher education, and then Tibetan schools where teachers themselves may not have finished grade four (http://www.tibet.com/govt/edu.html).” 
  As Clothey (2005) in a study of China’s educational policies for ethnic minorities, particularly in relation to the Central University for Nationalities (CUN) in Beijing states, “students with better Chinese language skills are considered as more marketable and more modern”. By tracking students according to educational background (i.e. by the language of instruction used in their schools), the university reproduces a social structure that values the language of the dominant culture, making it more difficult for minority students who lack this linguistic competence or cultural capital upon entering the university to get good (or any) jobs after graduation. She further observes that, it could be argued that a greater emphasis should be placed on providing Chinese language instruction to linguistic minority students because of the language’s instrumental value, it is clear that minority students at CUN continue to value learning and using their native languages as important to
 preserving their cultural heritage”(Clothey, 2005).
  It is largely because of these very reasons that every year, an estimated 2,500 refugees flee from Tibet via Nepal to India; home of the exiled Tibetan government and of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. The majority of these people are estimated to be young people, children escaping from the oppression of Chinese rule, often being sent by their parents in the hope that they will receive proper education- that they can build a future for themselves 
   
  Thus, the desire to receive a ‘proper’ education –that preserves their cultural heritage along with providing necessary qualifications and skills i.e. basically, the motivation with which the Tibetan children come to the country can be stated to the only ‘resource’ that Tibetan children bring with them to the country. The extent of this motivation can be gauged from the fact that many children at the Dharamsala, who have crossed the Himalayas to study in India, are stated to have missing fingers and toes from frostbite on their journey. Their parents face penalties from the Chinese, including dismissal from jobs, if the flight is found out(http://www.tibet.com/govt/edu.html)cited in Mallica, 2002:90).
   
  Thus, as I’d observed in my M.Phil Dissertation (2002), “the quality of education that Tibetan children bring in from Tibet into India, might be poor, but the high level of motivation towards education and educational aspirations with which they come to the country also has to be recognized” (Mallica, 2002:90).
   
  Experiences in exile in India
   As already stated in my previous posting, unlike other groups of refugees the Tibetan refugees were provided recognition, granted asylum by the Indian Government, which also responded generously with regard to provision of educational assistance. The Government of India’s efforts, with regard to provision of educational assistance to the Tibetan refugees in India, have been particularly visible and noted by scholars and the Tibetan refugee community in India and aboard. As per the Dalai Lama, “ Over the years, the people and the Government of India have given us Tibetans tremendous support, particularly in the field of education. They gave us financial assistance, found us buildings, and provided dedicated and experienced Indian teachers. In addition, we received generous help from many foreign relief organizations. To all these friends, I offer my deepest thanks..”
  The Government of India’s sympathetic stance towards the Tibetan refugees in the country combined with generous contributions of foreign relief organizations towards the cause of education of Tibetan children and youth in India has effected tremendous development with regard to the education (not only primary, but also secondary and Tertiary/vocational) of the same in India. 
  This has benefited the Department of Education of the Tibetan Government in exile in realization of the goal of education for all Tibetan refugee children. Financial contributions have helped in the construction of adequate number of schools along with hostel facilities enabling Tibetan refugee children in remote parts of the country to pursue their education also. The financial contributions have also enabled a Tibetan printing press to be operational, where books on Tibetan literature, folk tales etc are published and provided to children (http:///www.tibet.com/govt/edu.html).
  As I had mentioned in my previous posting, there are largely three kinds of schools (apart from missionary run English-medium, private schools) for Tibetan children in India: those CTS (30 Central Schools for Tibetans) run by the CTSA, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development; there are also schools run by the Department of Education of the Tibetan Government in exile (34 in number ) also by autonomous bodies (21 in number). 
  Access to education (particularly primary and secondary) is, thus, no longer a problem. Access to higher education might still be a problem, though, with Tibetan refugees not wishing to forego their refugee status to acquire domicile certificates, the latter required to seek admissions to professional colleges and institutions of higher education /training in the country. This problem, however, as per Tsering and.Sinclair , is being adequately solved , to an extent , with State Governments ( ex-Himachal Pradesh) granting  a few medical and other seats for Tibetan students. Further, major projects, with regard to schools expansion programs; teacher and academic development programs; Tibetan publications programs; scientific, professional and vocational educational programs are being planned (with many of them already having received required funding from International donors and relief agencies and support from the Indian Government and the refugee community) and implemented. 
  The impact and outcomes of the education for Tibetan children in India can be gauged from the fact that the enrollment rate of children in Tibetan schools is stated to be almost 80 percent As per the Website of The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London, “ The Tibetan refugee community, which had a very low literacy rate only 30 years ago, has been able to achieve almost universal literacy among the younger generations. Many students have also been able to go beyond school to study at universities, colleges and vocational training centers. This represents one of the greatest achievements of the refugee community to education and the generosity of the Government of India, many donors such as Kinderdorf International, and many individuals. Over the next five years, the Tibetan Refugee Community is seeking to give every Tibetan child a school education and to significantly improve the quality of that education, as indicated in the goals
 established for the education sector. .”
  Thus, in comparison to other groups of refugees, for instance, the Afghan and Burmese refugees in India, the Tibetan refugees have achieved great strides in the field of education of their children and their future life-chances  – this being possible because of  support provided by the Government of India and a host of International relief organizations providing financial assistance /scholarships etc for the same , as also motivational follow-through and the Government-in Exile’s prioritizing  of education to improve  qualifications/skills of their children who will , it is believed lead ‘Free Tibet’ one day in the future. 
  The point to be noted is that while participation of refugees in social /educational institutions requires social support and assistance from mainstream members/host government, specific refugee communities, in this case, the Tibetans, also have their own specific strategies and resources to deal with the same, or otherwise. The refugee community thus becomes, in such cases, much more than passive recipients of welfare doles but active strategizers , who also actively seek to improve their educational (as also other) conditions in exile. Education is prioritized based on the realization that it can be a major tool for producing generation after generation of Tibetans, ‘Tibetan’ to the core, even in exile.
  Another point is that structural factors like-residential segregation; prejudices; language barriers, along with cultural and especially religious and other differences, beyond the control of newcomers may, at times, isolate them from integrating into the refugee (as also host )community and the school. While, problems of integration into the Host society (i.e. India) and it’s educational institutions is commonly faced by all refugee groups- it can be regarded to be a lot more convenient for the Tibetan refugee children  who come from Tibet (alongwith those who are born in India)in the country, with schools specially set up for the same within  the protective atmosphere of Tibetan settlements in different parts of the country under the Central Tibetan Schools Society or CTSA (Government of India funded); Department of Education ( Education Ministry of the Dalai Lama’s Government in Exile or  DoE and autonomous schools (funded and administered by private charitable organizations ,
 of which the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) and the Tibetan Homes Foundation (THF) are the two largest). 
  These schools, while providing educational qualifications equivalent to other schools in the country following a C.B.S.E curriculum, also are consciously trying to ‘preserve’ Tibetan language, culture and history by prescribing Tibetan books; teaching of Tibetan dance and music and by observance and reverence of traditional Tibetan rituals, symbols, metaphors in school processes and practices. Another important point that also needs to be mentioned is the sense of respect towards the host country (for giving refuge) that is fostered in these schools. Though Tibetan children go to schools which have largely Tibetan teachers and students, thereby preventing interaction with Indian children, they are taught Hindi as a third language (along with Tibetan and English) , though largely in terms of  rote methodology and at a very basic/rudimentary level so as to facilitate their adjustment (as against assimilation) with an understanding of the language(s) and culture(s) of their host
 country. 
  Getting to know Tibetan Youth in Delhi: My Experiences
  My interactions and semi-structured interviews with Tibetan youth  educated in such (and other ) schools in different parts of the country , presently residing in a youth hostel in Delhi to pursue their Graduation in Delhi University is proving to be a very profound and emotional experience for me. 
  Sometimes , I wonder whether I share karmic bonds with them from sometime in the remote past , which has led me to choose as my area of research , the interlinkages of education, culture and indentity in exile in their lives and also , particularly, to feel for them as also  for their cause and to want to contribute, to the extent possible, through my work and my life, to the former.
   As I interact with and (re ?)establish special bonds with these youth, interviews with them seem to be an eye-opener for me in terms of the very painful and traumatic experiences of so many of these youngsters who were sent by their parents in Tibet “to study” in India, the land of their “god”, His Holiness The Dalai Lama. There seem to be two main reasons why their parents seem to have taken this very painful and difficult step (as in many cases there has been no contact with the former fearing reprisals from the Chinese government).
  One is the fact that the Tibetans in Tibet fear that the education in the former regions is slowly resulting in the death of their traditional language and culture, for the preservation of which they decide to smuggle their children, through extremely hazardous and inhospitable cold and mountainous terrain. The second reason is that job opportunities for the Tibetan youth in Tibet also seem to be limited (see reference to Clothey, 2005 above). 
  My interactions with these youth also seems to shed light on the fact as to how the experience of schooling in India is treasured by the youth (even though they do have childhood memories of being torn away from their parents and place of birth at a very tender age, sometimes, as young as three or four years of age). They say that they respect and understand why their parents sent them to India and that they did the “right” thing as their culture, language and ‘Tibettanness’ is dying out in Tibet due to the deliberate attempt at “brainwashing” that takes place in the schools therein. Some of them stated that, it was only, after coming to India and living and studying in the TCV schools run by the Government-in-exile that they came to understand the “real story” of “exploitation by the Chinese government” in Tibet; of their monasteries and places of cultural and religious importance being “systematically destroyed” by the Chinese ; of monks and nuns and political prisoners being
 subjected to much torture and pain. They recount experiences of how Tibetans are not allowed to talk about His Holiness The Dalai Lama or ‘things about Tibet’ nor to even “keep a picture of His Holiness The Dalai Lama” in their homes or in their person. 
  Some of them mention the irony of the fact that, the meaning of their identity, of "being Tibetan", has awakened in them, not as children in Tibet, but in exile, in India. This has been the result of conscious effort on the part of the schools specially set up for them to preserve their identity in India. It is through the observance of everyday rituals and ceremonies replete with meanings in schools that these Tibetan youth seem to have “become truly Tibetan”.
  Alongwith these children who were born in Tibet but grew up in India, even those who have been born and brought up in India are taught the meaning (of being Tibetan) and trained (to grow up to become capable as the ‘seeds of future Tibet’) through educational pedagogies; curriculum and training specially designed for the said purpose in India.
  A brief look at the goals of the education policy of the Department of Education of the Tibetan government in exile also reiterates this fact.
   
  Goals of the Education Policy of the Tibetan Government in exile
  The goals of the Department of Education of the Tibetan government in exile are as follows:
  ·        To provide primary education to very Tibetan child, in order to achieve 100 per cent literacy among the younger generations
  ·        To bring up the community’s children as Tibetans, deep rooted in their cultural and national heritage
  ·        To impart to the community’s children modern, scientific and technical education and skills
  ·        To provide more opportunities for Tibetans to attend further education, especially in the vocational and technical subjects
  ·        To look after the physical, mental and spiritual needs of Tibetan children, and to make them responsible, productive and self-reliant members of society (Tsering and Sinclair,1999).
   
  What comes into attention as significantly important is the concern for the growth of Tibetan children “as Tibetans, deeply rooted in their cultural and national heritage”. 
  Apart from teaching Tibetan language; dance and music, the medium of instruction in all the Tibetan schools till class five is Tibetan (followed by its teaching as a second language from class six onwards). The Tibetans also have a ‘Tibetan cultural printing press’, which is an autonomous body, the principal duty of it being to supply Tibetan textbooks to schools in the refugee community. A brief review of the recent education policy also seems to reflect a heightened desire to take strong measures to preserve the Tibetan identity in exile.
   
  Review of recent Education Policy: Back to the past
  The new basic education policy recently formulated by the Department of Education after reviewing the situation of education in exile seeks to serve the current needs of Tibetans in exile as also ‘when Tibet attains a self-governing status in the future’. This new policy calls for implementation of ‘a system of education having traditional education as its core and modern education as its essential co-partner
’.
  The policy further observes that ‘in an education system, having traditional education as its core, it is appropriate to have the medium in which the traditional learning abides as the medium of instruction for general education. Therefore, efforts are being made to gradually convert Tibetan language into the medium of instruction in all Tibetan institutions of learning from pre-primary level to higher research study’.
  The policy states that from pre-primary to class three, no other language other than Tibetan would be taught and that teaching of second and third languages shall be started from class four and five respectively. This policy, it seems is aims at ‘addressing the current problem that many Tibetan youngsters face of understanding and communicating in the Tibetan language’. The policy is also expected to solve the whole problem of many Tibetan youngsters and adults of ‘losing their identity’(Chashar et al, 2005).
  At the same time, however, there is also a fear amongst significant sections of the Tibetan community that it will adversely affect English language acquisition skills (with English being introduced as second language and that also only from class four or five. As Gen Druk Tsering, principal of TCV Model School, Selakui says, “the quality of spiritual and cultural education will be beneficial but the other side should also be looked into..that “if the policy is too one-sided then it is likely to cause harm to students specially while attempting to enroll for higher studies in various universities(Chashar et al, 2005).
  Most of the Tibetan youth in my study seemed to be torn between agreeing with the fact that there is a need to preserve Tibetan language in schools but at the same time being forced to acknowledge the fact that a lack of emphasis on the teaching and speaking of English language, will create  problems for the youth in getting admission to ‘good’ universities and also in getting jobs in India. With jobs in the Government in exile having reached a saturation point, this will, they stated, will be a “big problem” for the youth who pass out of these schools. 
  The overwhelming concern for preservation and sustenance of traditions; cultures; language and ways of life in exile (even at the cost of adversely affecting job opportunities and creating problems of successful integration into the host milieu) by the Tibetan government in exile needs to be acknowledged. The attempt is to maintain in exile a strong sense of cultural and linguistic Tibetan identity and to nurture roots while at the same time to give a ‘modern’ and scientific education also to the children so that they provide the necessary professional, scientific and technical expertise in ‘Free Tibet’. 
   
  Next Step Forward
  Whether this sense of Tibetan identity and Tibettanness remains ‘preserved’ when Tibetan children studying in such schools pass out and come to the city of Delhi to pursue their graduate level studies, will be my area of exploration in my next few postings. The findings will be based on interviews that I have been carrying out with Tibetan youth in the city of Delhi, primarily with those residing in the Tibetan Youth Hostel, a hostel that was specifically set up by the Government in exile to enable Tibetan youth in the city to continue to retain their identity (fostered painstakingly in their schools in settlements all over the country) even while exposed to diverse and multi-faceted influences of the city.
   
  Till then!
  Best Wishes!
  Mallica

				
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