Two students of Tibet Charity Open Education Program participated in celebrating World Mother-tongue Day on 21st February 2016.

A special program was organised on the Day by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) under Human Resource Development Ministry, Govt. of India. They invited students from all over India to communicate with each other and to express their suggestions for improvement of Open Schooling Program. This program is run by the Ministry to provide opportunity to disadvantaged students across the country to educate themselves in a more open atmosphere. At the end of the year, they sit for exam and are given certificates that are equivalent to the certificates provided by normal schools. This is especially beneficial for those who do not get opportunity to go to normal school due to family commitments.

On that day, all such students sat in front of their computers and conversed with each other and the administrators in Delhi through video conferencing. All such conversations were done in their mother tongue. It was a real experience to hear so many different dialects being spoken across India. It really manifested unity in diversity. Though it was difficult to understand some of the dialects, merely listening to them gave us experience not known so far. It also gave each of the speakers pride in their own mother tongue.

Our students, Ven. Lobsang and Ms Tenzin Nangsel, spoke in Tibetan which was later translated into English. They said that India is a country which shared historical teacher-student relation with the Tibet since time immemorial. But they requested NIOS to include Tibetan as a subject under their program so that people living in Himalayan regions could benefit. The administrators in Delhi appreciated the suggestions and promised to look into the matter.

Our students said that they are grateful to the Govt. of India in general and National Institute of Open Schooling in particular for providing them with an opportunity to study in the country from where the Tibetan script has its origination.