Lack of opportunities
Chuwu Jianze, a scholar from Maerkang Normal College for Minorities in Sichuan Province, said that some local officials have politicized bilingual education.
"Some connect studying Chinese to 'patriotism' and studying Tibetan to 'narrow nationalism,' which deviates from the nature of education,"Chuwu said in a post on his WeChat account in November.
But some scholars believe that segregating education on the basis of ethnicity is detrimental. "If we separate students according to their ethnicities and educate them differently, the effect will not necessarily be good. Too much emphasis on differences is not conducive to the nurturing and formation of a national consensus," said A Lai, a famous Tibetan writer, in May last year, according to news portal ifeng.com. One of his famous novels - Red Poppies - is about a family of Tibetan chieftains.
Bilingual education is offered to more than 20 ethnic minority groups, with 4.1 million students currently being educated in more than one language, according to the North West Normal University Research Center for the Educational Development of Minorities (RCEDM).
However, Tibetan-language textbooks are just translated versions of the Chinese textbooks, Zeren said. He hoped that textbooks used in Tibetan schools can in future have more material about Tibetan culture and traditions.
Some Tibetans have called for there to be a greater focus on the Tibetan language in schools. "Education in the mother tongue does better in helping children to quickly accept new knowledge. I'm a beneficiary of such education, too. Even in college, the lessons were taught in Tibetan, which didn't stop me successfully learning Putonghua and English," said Jiacuo.
However, due to a lack of qualified bilingual teachers, especially science teachers, bilingual education is not well implemented in some schools, Zeren said.
Graduates from Tibetan-oriented or Tibetan-only high schools have fewer college and major choices than those from Putonghua-dominated schools.
According to a survey of Gannan Tibetan Prefecture, Gansu Province, by RCEDM, of the graduates of Tibetan-language high schools that went on to higher education, less than 20 percent chose to study sciences. Others chose arts, like Tibetan language literature and education.
Ethnic-minority students studying at bilingual schools can choose to sit the college entrance exam in either Chinese or their other language. But students that do not sit the Chinese exam can only enrol in colleges that specialize in their minority language, drastically limiting both their choices and the quality of education available to them.
The central government has noticed the problem. In a State decision to rapidly develop national education issued in August last year, the State Council pledged to reform the examination and enrollment system for ethnic-minority students.
It said China will ensure ethnic-minority students are proficient in Putonghua, but also respect and safeguard their right to education in their own languages.
Jiangbian Jiacuo, a senior Tibetologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said a degree of erosion of ethnic minority languages is inevitable. "Mastering one more language is like gaining an extra eye," Jianbian told the Global Times. "But we hope it's a natural process, not through compulsory measures by cutting Tibetan education."
Sense of crisis
Feeling there is a need to encourage young Tibetans to study the Tibetan language, some people like Gengpai have taken action. He quit his job as a English teacher in a middle school in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai in May in 2014.
Now, in addition to running a school, he often makes public proposals on social media.
"I hope my fellows can make sure to do these things: please spend some time each day studying the mother tongue, even just 10 minutes; please wear Tibetan costumes, even if its only on festivals; please use the Tibetan version on your iPhone."
To further encourage students of all ethnicities to come to his school, he also has started to offer Chinese, math and English classes, in addition to art and music courses. With four full-time teachers and several part-time teachers, the school has already enrolled about 50 Tibetan students, who will pay around 600 yuan ($91) each subject for the semester.
"Many of them have a poor mastery of Tibetan and we teach basic written Tibetan, pronunciation and simple vocabulary," he said.
There is also an increasing demand from Han people and from other ethnic groups looking to learn Tibetan.
In January last year, officials in Tibet held a meeting, mobilizing all non-native cadres in the region to study Tibetan, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
To facilitate communications, Gengpai said many public organs from public security, procuratorial departments, courts, firefighters and healthcare have started to seek Tibetan language training.
Besides, he said, after seeing the enrollment ads he posted online, many Han people from coastal areas expressed their interest in learning Tibetan. And he has sent more than 300 sets of textbooks to them for free.
Last year, his school also admitted five Han adult students. Some were Tibetan culture lovers, some businessmen engaged in trade or traveling with Tibetans.
Seeing the demand, Gengpai revealed that, anther private school committed to Tibetan language training, funded by individuals sharing his wish, was built in Xining.
"All the facilities have been built and equipped. Now, we are waiting for approval from the government," he said.
