fredag 12. juni 2026

Free Tibet’s Classrooms: End Patriotic Drills, Restore Native Language Learning

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.