China opens boarding school in eastern Tibet amid assimilation concerns

Tenzin Nyidon 

DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 5: China has opened a new boarding school in Choné, eastern Tibet, for students in grades 4–6, hailing the project as “good news” in an August 24 WeChat post featuring images of modern dormitories, classrooms, and sports facilities.

However, Tibetan rights groups warn that the reality is far more troubling. The Tibet Action Institute (TAI), which has extensively documented China’s vast network of colonial boarding schools, argues that such institutions are designed not to nurture but to assimilate. “These schools are not just classrooms. They are tools of forced assimilation,” TAI stated.

In its July 2025 report, When They Came to Take Our Children: China’s Colonial Boarding Schools and the Future of Tibet, TAI drew on rare firsthand accounts from inside Tibet and recent exiles, detailing the widespread harm inflicted on children as young as four. The report urged urgent international intervention to stop what it describes as a system of forced assimilation.

“Look beyond the bright lights and polished playgrounds, and the real intent becomes clear: a deliberate effort to assimilate Tibetan children and erase a distinct identity,” the group warned.

Experts stress that the age group now being targeted, grades 4 to 6, typically aged 9 to 12, is particularly vulnerable. At this stage, children are developing a sense of identity, yet in boarding schools, they are instructed to see themselves as “Chinese” and discouraged from speaking Tibetan. “Children in grades 4–6 still rely on their families for emotional support and cultural learning,” TAI emphasized. “Boarding life cuts them off from parents, grandparents, siblings, and daily community practices, including language, traditions, and religious customs. This isolation disrupts the natural transmission of Tibetan culture and weakens family connections.”

Reports from Tibetan families indicate that many children have already internalized shame about their language and culture, with some refusing to speak Tibetan at home or even beginning to identify as “Chinese.” According to TAI, this leads to long-term psychological harm, including loss of confidence, self-rejection, and strained family relationships.

While Beijing promotes new facilities as symbols of progress, rights advocates argue the real impact lies in the curriculum and the broader state policy of reshaping Tibetan children’s identity at the expense of their culture, language, and heritage.

International concern over these practices has been growing. On February 6, 2023, UN experts warned that around one million Tibetan children were being subjected to policies aimed at cultural, religious, and linguistic assimilation through the residential school system. According to Special Rapporteurs Fernand de Varennes (minority issues), Farida Shaheed (right to education), and Alexandra Xanthaki (cultural rights), the schools provide education and an environment dominated by Han culture. They also noted a sharp increase in the number of residential schools in and outside the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), stressing that while just over 20 percent of students in China are in boarding schools nationally, nearly all Tibetan children, around one million are forced into them.