NEW DELHI: Chinese authorities have closed three Tibetan schools in the Golog region of Qinghai province in recent months, leaving hundreds of students and teachers in limbo and deepening fears over the future of Tibetan-language education, a report said.
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Tibetan sources linked the closure of Gangjong Grassland Girls' School, Jasag Village Primary School and Golog Tadra Orphan School to Beijing's education policies and the Ethnic Unity and Progress Law, which came into force on July 1.
Beijing has justified moving schooling out of Golog on the grounds of the region's high altitude and a lack of teachers and resources, but there is no clarity on where students of the shut schools will continue their education, the report said.
"Currently, the schools in the Golog region are conducting a strong patriotic reeducation campaign," a source told RFA, adding that Tibetans were afraid to share information because of government restrictions.
The Gangjong Grassland Girls' School in Machen County, which had about 450 students and 60 teachers, was shut on August 28, while the Jasag Village Primary School, set up in 1995 with funds from local nomadic families, was closed in September, the report said. The Golog Tadra Orphan School, which has educated Tibetan orphans and disadvantaged children for two decades, was ordered to close this month.
"The Chinese government sees schools where Tibetans can organise themselves to learn and teach their own culture as a thorn in its side. That is why these schools are being abolished," Tibetan educational sociologist Gyal Lo told RFA.
Gyal Lo warned that the closures would push children into state-run boarding schools where the entire curriculum is taught in Chinese and controlled by the government.
"The aim is to turn the entire Tibetan people into Chinese. This is not limited to a small area; it is a plan with far-reaching consequences," he said.
Tenzin Lekshey, spokesperson for the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, said Beijing viewed Tibetan schools and monasteries as obstacles rather than institutions that preserve the community's identity.
"The Chinese government is doing all this out of fear," Lekshey told RFA.
The latest closures follow the shutting down of other Tibetan institutions in Golog, including Gangjong Sherig Norling School in July 2024, Dorjeten National Vocational School in December 2025 and Hungkar Dorje Vocational Secondary School in June this year, even as authorities opened a new state-run boarding school, Golog Tsoshar Middle School, with 1,200 students on September 1, according to the report. (IANS)