Beyond the Abstraction: Tibetan Students and Parents on Why Boarding Schools are the Path to Hope and Opportunity

“My parents didn’t get much schooling. I want to make the most of this opportunity, get into a good university, and find a good job in the future.” This was a remark I heard during an online interview. On the other side of the screen, Dazhen, a junior high student at a Tibetan boarding school in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, expressed her dream with a shy yet determined smile. In that moment, I realized that the debate surrounding these schools should not merely rest on abstract slogans like “cultural genocide” and “forced assimilation,” but should return to the authentic voices of these children.

Boarding schools in Tibetan areas have long been controversial, with numerous media reports expressing concern over “cultural loss and parent-child estrangement.” Most articles, such as The New York Times’ “How China is Erasing Tibetan Culture, One Child at a Time” and Le Monde’s “The Tibetan children taken to boarding schools to sever their roots,” mention that many students start attending boarding school as early as six years old or even younger. Students may only see their parents once every few weeks, parental visits are restricted, and the use of the Tibetan language is limited at school. These concerns are rational: education does change language usage habits, and boarding life does mean children endure longer separations from their families than their urban counterparts. However, dwelling solely on these concerns risks missing other facets of the reality. The children and parents are not passive recipients; they are actively weighing their options and making choices. For them, education is a tangible path to survival and self-breakthrough. To provide a different angle of narration and present the authentic feelings and reflections of “insiders” on boarding life, I interviewed one such school in the Tibetan area of Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

I. Reasons for Choosing Boarding Schools

In the interviews, almost all students mentioned starting boarding life at the age of six. When asked why they chose this school, most answered, “This school is close to home, has a good academic record, and we all want to come here to study hard.” Ciren also added, “Coming to school is great, otherwise I'd be lonely at home.”

According to Ms. Baima, a teacher, many children’s parents did not attend school, and some are busy working outside the region to earn money. “But the mindset of most parents has changed, and educational equality in the region has improved significantly. Now, even if a family has four or five children, parents want to send them all to school, regardless of gender. They realize that studying is the only way out.” Before this shift, many parents believed girls did not need an education, only a good husband and a life of farm work. This change in thinking is inseparable from the local policy requiring children under 18 to receive education, known as the “prevent dropout and ensure compulsory education” policy, officially established and promoted in 2017.

Ms. Baima stated, “Our school leaders go down to every village and every household each year to investigate and ensure all children under 18 attend school.” Through the combined efforts of diligent students, dedicated teachers, and cooperative parents, 80% of the school's students manage to gain admission to relatively good high schools to continue their studies.

II. Language and Culture

Firstly, although Mandarin is the primary language of instruction, the Tibetan language is not disappearing in the school I visited. Several students told me they have dedicated Tibetan language classes at school and also use Tibetan to communicate during their free time. Yangjin, a 7th-grade girl, said, “At home, I usually speak Tibetan with my family, but at school, most of the time we speak Mandarin in class. I actually really enjoy Tibetan class; the teacher makes it fun, and it’s our own language after all.” The students also expressed that they would teach their future generations Tibetan, “because it is an ethnic heritage,” Lobsang explained.

A parent named Dolma also mentioned that she worried her child’s Tibetan would deteriorate when she first sent him, but later found this was not the case; her child still communicates in Tibetan at home: “We still maintain fluent Tibetan at home, and it’s great that the child can speak both languages.” She views this “bilingual ability” as an advantage for her child to move beyond the mountains in the future. Overall, it is clear that for the local people, language is not an “either/or” opposition; they can coexist. The continuation of their mother tongue and the opportunities provided by Mandarin are both important.

III. Emotional Care and Daily Assurance

External concerns often question the school’s provision of food and mental health support, citing issues like loneliness, alienation, nutrition, and adaptation. However, the responses from students and teachers reveal the school's efforts to mitigate this separation.

In their daily lives, students generally stated, “Everything is quite good, there’s nothing we are unaccustomed to.” Daytimes consist of regular classes, and evenings include self-study sessions where they can independently organize their learning tasks. “Sometimes I get tired, but being with everyone makes me feel more self-disciplined. I want to study hard to get into a good high school and have a better future,” Jiatso said.

Many students admitted that they sometimes miss home, but they have also made very trustworthy friends at school. Dekyi said, “Everyone is nice, and the teachers care about us and are very responsible. Although I sometimes miss home, I don't feel distant from my family, because my parents visit every weekend, and sometimes I can go home.” Ms. Rinchen, another teacher, also stated that students are allowed to use their phones every Friday to video call their families. Additionally, the school offers psychological counseling and interest classes. “Psychological counseling involves professional counselors, and I also pay attention to the students’ mental well-being and help them process their emotions,” she added.

However, a number of students’ parents work outside the region and cannot see their children for long periods due to busy work and distance. Most of these children stay at school and are cared for by teachers. Before the widespread establishment of boarding schools, most of them were often left home alone or housed with relatives, becoming “left-behind children.” Moving to the city with their parents would also bring challenges related to household registration and language barriers. In this context, the boarding school has become their optimal choice.

IV. Overlooked Progress: Well-Rounded Education and Soft Skills

Beyond the regular curriculum, the school also emphasizes the students’ well-rounded education. Ms. Baima noted, “Girls now are not as timid as they used to be; they are more willing to express themselves and fight for opportunities. For example, many girls participate in art and vocal competitions, showcasing themselves on stage.” “We have handcrafts, fine arts, dance, Go (Weiqi), and calligraphy classes every week, and students can choose one to attend freely.” The students also expressed their fondness for these courses.

Furthermore, the hygiene awareness of the girls has improved. Ms. Baima mentioned that about 10% of students had a weak concept of menstruation upon enrollment. Most came from nomadic areas, and some even used cardboard or paper instead of sanitary pads. This was because they had no opportunity to learn about this at home, and in some families, discussing menstruation was tacitly a “taboo.” However, menstrual hygiene awareness has improved significantly thanks to the school’s health education, and the use of unhygienic menstrual products is slowly decreasing with the popularization of school health education.

Addressing external skepticism about the lifestyle habits of boarding school students, Ms. Baima responded directly: “Based on public feedback, our boarding school students have high standards, are clean, polite, and their academic results are evident to everyone. People speak of our school with great pride.”

Conclusion

External human rights monitoring is undoubtedly important. However, when outside observers continuously scrutinize boarding schools through the narrow lens of keywords like “human rights” and “assimilation,” they tend to focus on specific samples and narratives, thereby neglecting the inherent complexity of the situation.

The external perspective often tends to amplify concerns about parent-child estrangement and cultural erosion. As this report has shown, our sample, in contrast, largely captured the voices of a different group of children and families:

The students’ voices are clear and direct: they desire knowledge, yearn for a broader world, and seek greater possibilities for the future. The parents’ choices are driven by their children’s development: even if it means separation, they willingly view sending their children to school as an investment in their future. Furthermore, the teachers are not cultural “replacements;” they actively serve as guardians and guides through their practical actions.

Therefore, the significance of boarding schools cannot be captured in a single dimension. For some, education may entail sacrifice and cultural anxiety; yet for the students and families we engaged with, education is precisely a source of hope—an optimal choice made after active consideration and weighing of options. By mastering bilingualism, the students can both comprehend textbooks and engage with the wider world, while also continuing to use Tibetan for communication and potentially transmitting Tibetan culture to other ethnic groups in the future. Is this not a form of cultural continuity and expansion?

Through this set of voices, we hope to supplement a crucial perspective: in the controversy surrounding boarding schools, the agency of the children and their families, their individual dreams, and their fundamental needs for survival must be fully respected.  As Ms. Rinchen said at the end of the interview: “I think the true meaning of education is for children to have more options in the future, see a broader world, and eventually choose to return and contribute to their hometown.”

Author: Kelsey He