Tibetan Schools transfer to Central Tibetan Administration

By Contact Staff / January 30, 2013;

Education Secretary Ngodup Tsering (1st L)
at the launch of the department’s English-
Tibetan Terminology in Dharamsala

The Department of Education (DoE) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has welcomed an announcement made by India’s Union Cabinet on 10 January 2013, to approve the transfer of schools run by the Central Tibetan School Association (CTSA) to the DoE of the CTA, or any society run by the same over a three year period.

The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The schools will continue to receive financial support from the Indian Government. The CTA will be provided Rs. 43 crore per annum, and an annual increment of 5% for the running of these schools.

Kyishong Gangchen, Secretary of the Tibetan DoE, welcomed the decision and pledged, “to make every effort to realize the vision of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the late Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru to nurture a generation of Tibetan youth having sound modern as well as traditional education.”

The transfer will benefit 2,200 residential students and 6,455 day scholars studying in 71 schools spread across India, with a better focus on their needs. The schools will continue to be affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), with the only change in structure being the addition of Tibetan teachers to teach Tibetan language. The Indian teaching and non-teaching staff will be given the option to continue, or to transfer to Indian schools.

The CTSA was started in 1961 to establish and run schools for the children of Tibetan refugees, while preserving Tibetan culture and heritage. However, concerned about the gradual deterioration in the quality of education and academic performance, the Tibetan government mooted a proposal for the transfer of these schools from the Indian government to the CTA in 2010.

The then Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, following a meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, had recommended the transfer of these schools to the Human Resources Development ministry.

The approval for the transfer of the schools comes from the fact that the CTA has done a reasonably good job of managing the schools under its own administration with over 17,000 students. The results of the CTA administered schools have also been consistently higher than those managed by the CTSA.