China urges Tibetan schools to oppose the Dalai Lama and avoid religious activities

Chinese authorities in Tibet’s westernmost prefecture of Ngari have told its teachers and students to vow allegiance to the communist party-run People’s Republic of China (PRC) and denounce the Dalai Lama in its latest so-called anti-separatism drive, according to the Tibetan service of rfa.org Nov 6.

The call was stated to have been made at an October workshop on “anti-separatism” to which attendance-summons had been issued to more than 400 teachers and students from the prefecture’s elementary and middle schools.

Those attending the workshop were told “to confer their allegiance toward the state ideology and condemn separatism and His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” and “to refrain from any religious activities in schools,” the report quoted a Tibetan as saying in a written message.

The report also cited a second Tibetan as adding the participating Tibetan teachers and students were told to pledge their loyalty and patriotism to the Chinese government and refrain from teaching and imparting any education related to religion.

“The teachers must ensure they teach students to adhere to conferring their allegiance to the state ideology,” he has said, also in a written message.

The participants in the workshop had bene summoned form schools that were stated to include Ngari Garzong Middle School, Kung-Phen-Sen Elementary School, Ngari Vocational Middle School, Ngari Model School and Ngari Childcare Center.

The anti-separatism drive is obviously part of President Xi Jinping’s renewed focus on the Sinicization of ethnic minority areas of the PRC which has seen nearly a million Tibetan children being separated from their parents and culture to be raised as Chinese citizens loyal to the Communist Party of China and inimical towards their own ethnic root.