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RESEARCH AND CHILDREN:China
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Interviews with Tibetan children
In 1997, structured interviews were carried out with 50 Tibetan children who had fled from Tibet in the previous two or three years and were now living in northern India. Almost half (47%) of those interviewed who had visited a primary school said they had experienced degrading, humiliating or brutal forms of corporal punishment. It was reported as being less common in mangstug schools (locally sponsored primary schools), which employ mainly Tibetan teachers, than in zhungtsug schools (Government sponsored primary schools), which rely more on Chinese teachers.
The reasons children gave for being punished included being late for school, speaking or eating in class, and not doing their homework. Some stated that they were punished for no reason, and two reported being beaten because the teacher was in a bad mood.
"Sometimes the teacher came to class in a bad mood.... Then he would take students and tell them to carry their chair above their head. If they dropped the chair or if they fainted he would beat them with a big stick."
"When we did not do our homework properly we were kicked and beaten with chairs. Most of the time the teachers hit us on the stomach or the back but sometimes he hit us also on the head. This was the most dangerous because often the wounds had to be stitched. Some students fainted and some had to vomit after these beatings."
Students reported being beaten with implements, including rubber clubs, whips, belts, electric wires, chair legs, whole chairs and bamboo sticks. They reported being beaten all over the body. They also stated that Tibetan students were punished more harshly than Chinese students.
"... the Chinese teacher made us stand on a chair with bricks on our head and in our outstretched hands. When a brick fell, we were beaten. The Chinese teacher used different things to beat us with: a rubber whip, an electric wire or the leg of a chair. We were beaten all over the body. Many times I had to go to the hospital after being beaten by the Chinese teacher and two or three times I had to be hospitalised.... Girls were beaten the same way."
"For the same mistake a Tibetan student would get three whips, while the Chinese student only received one whip."
Other forms of physical punishment were reported as including standing in the hot sun and lifting heavy objects.
"The teachers punished us because we had visited a Tibetan monastery. They made us stand outside the school building from nine o'clock in the morning until six o'clock at night without any food or drink. It was very sunny and warm at the time and so it was very hard for us to stand in the bright sun all day. Luckily no one lost consciousness."
"When we were late in the morning we were punished in the following way. We had to take two heavy stones in our hands, lift up our arms, and kneel down in front of the class for 15 to 30 minutes. When we dropped a stone we were beaten with a belt or a stick and we had to do it again."
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, 1997, The Next Generation - The state of education in Tibet today, Dharamsala, India: Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. Full report available from:
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Narthang Building
Gangchen Kyishong
Dharamsala
H.P.
India.
email tchrd@dsala.tibet.net.
Available online at: www.tibet.com/Humanrights/EduToday/intro.html