The Purpose Of Education

His Holiness the XIVth Dalai lama speaks on the subject of education for the Tibetan--excerpts from an address at the Reorientation Course for the Tibetan Language Teachers held in Dharamsala in 1977.

"When we look back into history we find that we have neglected many things. Our goal for now and for the future should be to keep abreast with other peoples of the world in all aspect of educational progress and development. Therefore, after coming to India as refugees, our primary initiative has been the education of our children and rehabilitation of our people. We have achieved considerable success in our educational endeavors, but our work does not end here. We must ensure its continued progress and development. Towards this ends, all those who are concerned with the education of our children should put forward their efforts ceaselessly and work with determination in order to overcome the difficulties that we may encounter.

Although we are far behind other people in the field of modern education, our children do not lack the potentiality for it . Our children have every potentiality, and the intelligence to grasp modern education . It is not only my personal observation but this view is shared by many foreigners also. It is now our duty to think of a way to properly utilize this asset.

Education is like weapon. If properly utilized, it brings happiness and benefit to the individual and the whole society in which he lives , and vice versa. So the important thing in education is training one's mind to attain a correct attitude for the best utilization of education, in order to bring happiness to oneself and the society in which one lives. This is the ultimate aim of education. Besides this, the teachers should aim at building a sound character in each and every child. Nothing is more important than a sound character in a sound body.

Our children are the successors of a great people and are the future seeds of Tibet. They are the ones who will carry out our national task, be it political or spiritual. It is, therefore, necessary to infuse in our children a feeling of political consciousness, for political education backed by proper motivation will be useful.

We are a great people; we have a rich cultural and traditional background and we should always be proud of these things. Every effort must be directed towards the preservation of our great civilization."