China targets Tibetan language in kindergartens with "Harmonisation Plan"

Human Rights Research Center
9 hours ago
3 min read

May 11, 2026

HRRC strongly condemns attempts to reduce the use of minority languages at the kindergarten level of education in China. The forced removal of Tibetan at this early life stage especially threatens cultures and traditions that are already endangered.

Tibetan children could be deprived of mother tongue instruction throughout their school lives. [Image credit: Herbert Bieser from Pixabay]

The Chinese government is actively targeting kindergarten students with an initiative to mandate standard Mandarin Chinese for all pre-school programmes. This initiative was originally part of a 2021 government directive from the Ministry of Education that included the “Children’s Speech Harmonisation Plan”, which critics see as an attempt at ideological indoctrination and to assimilate the Tibetan population.

“Start with the Youngest Children: China uses Preschools to ‘Integrate” Tibetans,”a recent report released by Human Rights Watch, takes a detailed look at Chinese policy documents while also incorporating interviews held with Tibetan individuals who have direct knowledge of living conditions in Tibetan areas. The report provides evidence that the authorities are actively trying to reduce the use of Tibetan language in education.

The move to Chinese only instruction in educational institutions began with a drastic reinterpretation of the 1984 Regional National Autonomy Law. Originally set up to give protection to minority groups and their own languages and promoted a bi-lingual approach to learning “whenever possible,” the government has begun began reinterpreting the phrase “whenever possible” in the law to mean that standard Mandarin Chinese was to be used as the primary language of instruction, and minority languages were just to be taught as standalone subjects.

The process to move to Chinese-only instruction has already been established at both the primary and secondary level, with kindergarten as the only level in which Tibetan was a primary language of instruction. But by 2021,the Ministry of Education has ordered that all kindergartens in minority areas must use the “national common language” for all teaching and care activities.

This language loss is having a significant and visible impact on the lives of the Tibetan minority. Socially, language loss is affecting relationships across generations and leading to a loss of both cultural and religious knowledge. Furthermore, the enforced indoctrination is creating an atmosphere in which these young students are taught to believe that both Tibetan language and Tibetan identity are secondary when compared to the “Chinese nation”.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees that children who belong to minorities should be given the freedom to use their own language and be provided with education that respects their cultural identity. By targeting Tibetan in kindergartens, the Chinese government is not only failing to comply with the recommendations set out in the UN convention, but also as a result is creating an environment in which the continued use of the Tibetan language in China is at serious risk.

Glossary

Assimilate — to become part of a group, country, society, etc., or to make someone do this
Bi-lingual — able to use two languages equally well
Chinese nation — the idea of a unified Chinese national identity shared by all ethnic groups in China
Culture identity — the feeling of belonging to a particular culture or ethnic group
Enforced — made to happen because it is officially required by law or rules
Indoctrination — the process of repeating an idea or belief to someone until they accept it without questioning it
Mandate — an official order or requirement to do something
Mandarin Chinese — the official and most widely spoken form of the Chinese language
Reinterpretation — the act of explaining or understanding something in a new or different way
Standalone — existing separately and not connected to something else

Sources

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China targets Tibetan language in kindergartens with "Harmonisation Plan"

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