Tibetannet

Since the Tibet Autonomous Region was established 50 years ago, modern education on the snowy plateau has started from scratch and grown from weak to strong. From pre-school to master's and doctoral graduate studies, education in Tibet has developed vigorously, and a modern education system including special education, continuing education, vocational and technical training has been established, benefitting the Tibetan people, Xinhua reported.

Taking the lead in building 15 years of free education system

In Old Tibet, there was only monastic education and few private school education, only children of the three lords and the rich, accounting for about five percent of the total population could get the opportunity to learn, while the children of slaves in the rural and pastoral areas had no right to be educated.

In 1951, the first primary school in the modern sense in Tibet - Chamdo Primary School was set up, marking the beginning of the modern education on the plateau. Currently, Tibet has 1,696 schools at all levels, including 388 teaching centers located in remote villages. Children all have access to education of various categories and at all levels after completing compulsory education.

Currently, Tibet takes the lead in building 15 years of free education system from pre-school to high school in China. Since 1985, the "three guarantees" (free food, free lodging, and free tuition guarantees) policy practiced in primary and middle schools in rural and pastoral areas, and Tibet has raised the "three guarantees" standards for 14 consecutive times.

Meanwhile, the nutrition improvement program for all Tibetan farmers’and herdsmen’s children during compulsory education period was implemented, and the financing system from pre-school to graduate was improved continuously. More than 1.53 million teachers and students were financed with the subsidy amounting to over 2.3 billion yuan(359.7 million U.S. dollars).

"None of the students will not afford to go to school because of family poverty," said Ma Shengchang, director-general of the Education Department of the Tibet Autonomous Region. "The vast majority of people changed their fate through education."

Inland Tibetan classes bring plateau closer to modern education

In 1985, according to the situation of talent scarcity and relatively weak educational foundation in Tibet, 16 inland provinces and cities set up the first batch of Tibet classes (schools). The first groups of Tibetan primary school graduates with ethnic Tibetans as the main body went to study in inland areas, starting a new education mode. The high quality educational resources and advanced educational methods make the Tibetan classes become the first choice of many Tibetan students. Up to now, Tibetan classes (schools) and secondary vocational classes were founded in 21 provinces and municipalities, with 26,900 students in school, covering the junior high school, high school, secondary vocational and higher education. The accumulated enrollment over the years reached 107,700 in total and over 32,000 talents above the technical school level were nurtured for Tibet.

To meet the growing demand for education, excellent teachers from Jiangsu, Beijing and other inland provinces and cities were sent to Tibet, and "inland Tibetan classes" funded by other provinces and cities were also built in Tibet.

Providing strong intellectual support for Tibet's economic and social development

In Old Tibet, farmers and herdsmen taking up over 95 percent of the total population lacked formal education, so social productive forces was shrinking, and the political, economic and cultural levels were left backward for a long time. During the past 50 years, Tibet has made efforts to develop modern education through cultivating national cadres and technical personnel, providing strong intellectual support for its economic and social development. The rapid development of education has nurtured a lot of talents and backbones in many industries for its social and economic development.

Data shows that, at present, Tibet’s primary school enrollment rate reached 99.6 percent, and the junior high school enrollment rate reached 98.9 percent. There are 2,700 people with high school educationl and above in every 100,000, and 300,000 talents in human resources in the region, indicating a significant Improved in thescientific and cultural qualities of its people.

Thanks to the modern bilingual education system based on national standard language or Mandarin, supported by well-connected types of education, now more than 80 percent of the Tibetan civil servants and cadres can be proficient in both the Chinese and the Tibetan language. In some pastoral areas, Tibetan farmers and herdsmen who can master both the Chinese and the Tibetan language normally become leaders to shake off poverty.

"At present, it is the best period for the development of education in Tibet in history",said Ma Shengchang.

In the future, the education sector will further deepen reform, increase investment, promote the equalization of public education services, improve the educational level and teaching quality, and culture more talents for economic and social development of Tibet, he said.