Schooling for knowledge and cultural survival: Tibetan community schools in nomadic herding areas

For children of Tibetan nomadic (drokpa) families, it is often a struggle to attend school. The long distance from home to school, irrelevance of school learning to daily life and available jobs after graduation contribute to the choice by some parents to keep their children at home for domestic work. Although some parents consider schooling in its present form a waste of time, it is nevertheless acknowledged that proficiency in Chinese and basic knowledge gained from schooling are probably essential if employment is to be sought outside the pastoral community. This case study introduces three primary community schools in the herding areas of Qinghai and Sichuan. In addition to Chinese, these schools teach Tibetan, and take traditional beliefs and cultural values into account. It is argued that recognizing rural life in remote, high‐altitude herding areas is under transition and has made Tibetan parents more open towards schooling, in particular if their children have the possibility to attend a local community school.