Dharamshala, 14th April: Tibetan Parents are now responsible for teaching their children Mandarin as part of the Chinese government’s campaign to promote Mandarin as the primary spoken and written language for Tibetans as per a report from tibetwatch.org. The parents are forced to attend workshops and classes. It also places a burden on parents to stay current with and completely comprehend the constantly changing policies, regulations, and laws that control language.
According to Tibet Watch research, at least 16 mandatory workshops for parents were held in a secondary school in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture from February to March this year. One of the meetings, which took place on March 9, aims not only to teach the Chinese language but also to modify participants’ thoughts through Chinese education.
The report further claimed that the parents were given step-by-step instructions during the conference, telling them to first study and improve the “common” language which is mandarin, then support their children with language development as part of their contribution to the “Chinese Dream.”
Golog was not the only place that hold such meetings and workshops, Tibet watch found out that in the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Nyima County, a similar workshop was held, and was told about Xi Jinping’s vision for China and encouraged to communicate what they had learned when they returned to their communities.
China usually brags about “freedom” to the whole world through its state media, such as CCTV which boastfully states Tibet’s conditions “From serfdom to freedom”. This so-called “Freedom” is cosmetic in nature as the Chinese Communist Party’s new technique of focusing on parents as language promoters is a new way of delivering policies that degrade the rights of non-Han ethnicities living under Chinese rule to practice and develop their own languages.
This action follows the Ministry of Education of China issuing a notice in July of last year stating that beginning in the fall of that year, kindergartens in all ethnic and rural areas shall adopt the national common language.