250 bilingual kindergartens to be built in Tibet region

A total of 250 bilingual kindergartens will be set up in rural areas of the Tibet Autonomous Region by 2020, making bilingual education available throughout in the region.

Regional government will increase the gross enrollment ratio in preschool education to 80 percent during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), the Tibet Business Daily reported on Wednesday.

The regional authorities also guaranteed that all schools will feature instruction in two languages, Tibetan and Putonghua.

The ratio between 2015 and 2016 was 61.49 percent, according to data released by the region's education department.

Regional authorities pledged to improve preschool education, accelerate the opening of new bilingual schools in cities, as well as agricultural and pastoral areas.

"We will hire and train more teachers who are fluent in both Tibetan and Chinese, and promote exchanges between teachers in rural areas and cities," an official in charge of elementary education at the department was quoted by the Tibet Business Daily as saying.

A total of 1,000 teachers for bilingual education and disciplines that lack faculty will be trained.

At present, there are 87,951 students in 882 kindergartens with 4,118 teachers in Tibet, the department said.