DHARAMSHALA, April 19: Chinese authorities in Karzde region of eastern Tibet have shutdown a two-decade old Tibetan school and arrested two of its senior most teachers.
The Khadrok Jamtse Rokten School, which offered classes in Tibetan language and culture was forcibly closed on April 2.
Although Chinese authorities have not given any reason for the closure of the school, established in 1987 with full legal requirements, rights group believe the school’s emphasis on promoting Tibetan language and Tibetan cluture prompted the government’s move.
“For the past more than two decades, the school has greatly contributed in the preservation of Tibetan language and culture and has provided education to a number of local Tibetan children,” Jamphel Monlam, Assistant Director of the Dharamshala based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy told Phayul.
Gyurme Wangyal, a former student of the school, currently in exile told the Tibet Express that the school curriculum put special emphasis on speaking pure Tibetan among the students.
“The school has so far managed to achieve a marked improvement in the literary standards in the region and some of the outstanding students, now in exile, have previously studied in the school,” Wangyal said.
In a release today, TCHRD said the Kardze County Public Security Bureau officers arrested Nyendak, 51, who has worked as the director of the school for over 20 years and Yama Tsering, 36, who joined the school as an English teacher in 2005.
“Both were arrested from the school and taken to an undisclosed location … There is no information at this time on the two teachers’ whereabouts and condition. The charges for their arrest are also not known,” the release said.
TCHRD cited sources as saying that family members of Nyendak and Yama Tsering were interrogated and denied access to see the detainees.
According to Wangyal, the arrest of the two teachers are linked to their efforts in teaching Tibetan language at the school and their encouragement in the use of pure Tibetan language in daily conversations amongst the students.
After the closure of the school, Chinese authorities have issued strict warnings against attempts to reopen the school and instructed parents to send their children to the government schools in the township.
This year in March, around 700 Tibetan school students in Rebkong carried out a large protest calling for language rights after government authorities issued textbooks in Chinese language.
In October 2010, thousands of school students in the same region had marched on the streets, protesting a Chinese government decision to replace Tibetan with Chinese language as the medium of instruction in Tibetan schools.
