Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 16: China has launched a pilot programme in Tibet that stations military veterans in state-run kindergartens and schools, raising alarm over the growing militarisation of Tibetan education. According to a new report by Tibet Watch, the initiative aims to instill Communist Party ideology and military discipline in Tibetan children as young as four.
The programme, which began in Nagchu in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, currently involves 13 veterans deployed across seven schools, including kindergartens. Chinese state television has aired footage of Tibetan children dressed in military fatigues, raising the national flag, and participating in “civil defence” drills by diving under desks with notebooks on their heads. Kindergarten students were shown listening to “red stories” glorifying the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and pledging loyalty to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party.
Local media describe the instructors, known as “school-based military teachers”, as responsible for both physical training and ideological education. In one state-produced documentary, a Tibetan mother nervously praised the programme, claiming her children had become “more disciplined”. A military instructor stationed at Kindergarten No. 5 in Sernye District said the veterans’ emphasis on “red education” was “taking root in young minds like seeds sown quietly.”
The initiative follows the National Defence Education Law, amended by China’s top legislature in 2024, which mandates deeper integration of military and patriotic education into schools. It also aligns with Beijing’s growing push to recruit Tibetans into the PLA, particularly for high-altitude warfare along the Indian border. Reports have surfaced in 2021 that Tibetan students aged 18 to 21 are being offered reimbursement of school fees in exchange for mandatory two-year military training, with those already receiving state aid required to enrol.
Chinese state media have celebrated the programme under slogans such as “Plant the seeds of love for the Party, love for the country, and safeguarding the border.” Earlier this year, 100 Tibetan teenagers from Lhasa schools attended a military camp where they learnt how to load rifles and march under the red flag. Posters at the camp read: “Love the Army and Master the Martial Arts.”
The deployment of military veterans in schools is part of Beijing’s broader effort to deepen ideological control in Tibet and secure its restive borderlands. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly emphasised that “to govern the nation, we must first stabilise Tibet” and has urged the creation of a “Great Wall of Steel” along China’s frontiers. The Western Theatre Command, which oversees the Tibet border with India, has since been elevated to top priority in military readiness and equipment allocation.
Critics say the militarisation of Tibetan schools reflects a systematic strategy of cultural assimilation. “By targeting children at their most impressionable age, China is attempting to erase Tibetan identity and produce a generation loyal to the Communist Party,” Tibet Watch said in its report.
