On the verge of losing a generation.

20 February, 2025

The American show ‘Frontline’ by PBS has released its investigative documentary on the Chinese colonial boarding schools titled ‘Battle for Tibet’. The episode uncovers the colonial boarding school system enforced by China on Tibetan children in Tibet. Unfortunately, the full documentary is currently unavailable in Australia.

Watch the short version on Youtube below.

It is estimated that over a million Tibetan children, as young as four years old are kept in these schools, separated from their families, communities and way of life. Even a conservative estimation of 800,000, as reported by PBS in this coverage is alarming.

In the video, Mr. Victor Gao from the Centre for China and Globalisation (a Pro-CCP organisation) says, “If you do not speak Mandarin [in Tibet] then it will be more difficult for you to find a more meaningful job”. This is most certainly correct, China ensures Tibetans are marginalised through this Chinese boarding education system and other restrictive employment and welfare policies. Tibetans are unable to earn a living if they chose to speak only their own language in their own country.

Dr Gyal Lo, whistle-blower and Tibetan educational-sociologist, shares that these Chinese colonial boarding schools have a highly politicised curriculum designed to indoctrinate Tibetan children with CCP ideology. In addition, the schools also aim to replace Tibetan identity through immersion into Chinese culture and almost exclusively teaching in Mandarin.

Since 2023, ATC have been campaigning for the end to this cultural genocide, saying Not On Our Watch!. In 2024 ATC had the privilege of inviting Dr Gyal Lo to Australia, where he shared accounts from his research that he conducted in Tibet from 2017-2020 with Australian Parliamentarians and Government. During his research he travelled extensively across Tibet to visit these Chinese colonial boarding schools including boarding kindergarten where children as young as four are kept. In the documentary, Dr Gyal Lo says “If these colonial boarding schools continue over the next 15 to 20 years, Tibet’s culture and identity will be completely destroyed”.

Australia Tibet Council continues to ensure that the Australian Government raises the Chinese colonial boarding school system in the UN and during Australia’s bilateral negotiations with China. In 2024, during the United Nations General Assembly, Australia made a statement, sharing its concerns about the “separation of children from families in boarding schools; and erosion of linguistic, cultural, educational and religious rights and freedoms in Tibet”. Australia also recommended that China “end restrictions..on rights to enjoy their own culture and language”, during China’s UN Universal Periodic Review.

Our work however is not complete. Please consider supporting this important campaign so that ATC can continue to apply pressure for Australia to do more in ending these schools.