Lhasa, 5 May (ZXS) -- Tibetan scholars: Boarding education should be understood from the perspective of local people
China News Agency reporter Zhao Lang
"When it comes to boarding education, we need to understand boarding education from specific people who have had personal experiences and their feelings. From an anthropological point of view, we should not rely on our own subjective knowledge, but should understand the phenomenon from the perspective of the local people as much as possible. Recently, Dr. Pematso, a researcher at the Institute of Ethnic Studies of the Tibet Autonomous Region Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview with the China News Agency about boarding education in Tibet.
Pematso was born in Nagqu, northern Tibet, a typical pastoral area in Tibet, and she was more familiar with boarding education in a pastoral environment. In her cognition, there are many places like Naqu, which are sparsely populated, and it is difficult to run a school nearby.
She recounted the experience of a teacher born in a pastoral college and university, who was born in Naqu Nyima County, and the nearest primary school to him was in the township, 45 kilometers away, which would take one day to hike. It can be said that this herdsman's child has been using the convenience of boarding schools to complete nine years of compulsory education and high school education, and later was admitted to Southwest University for Nationalities, and stayed on to teach after graduating with a master's degree. In the view of the college teacher, boarding education gives children in remote farming and pastoral areas the opportunity to go to school.
Pemtso also attended boarding schools and later studied in Norway and Australia. She noted that boarding schools do not require all students to board. Like some herders living in the hinterland of the grassland, they moved from the village to the countryside in order to better take care of their children, and their children could go home every day after school. This type of day school attendance also accounts for a significant proportion of British boarding schools.
Pematso admits that through getting to know people who have experienced boarding education, she has realized that for pastoral children living in the heart of the grassland, this experience is an important stage in shaping their cognitive process, allowing them to interpret and understand the world they live in and the knowledge system created by their parents through experiential observation and rational thinking.
For Tibetan boarding education should be viewed more from the perspective of locals, Xing Junli, a professor at the School of Education of Tibet University, agrees with Pematso. She said: Since 1985, the central authorities have comprehensively implemented the boarding system for primary and secondary schools in Tibet's agricultural and pastoral areas, and implemented a three-guarantee policy of "including food, housing, and tuition" for the children of farmers and herdsmen in the compulsory education stage. Since 2012, Tibet has included all the education of children of farmers and herdsmen from kindergarten to high school into the scope of "three guarantees" free education, and since then has fully implemented the "three guarantees" policy of 15 years of public-funded education. In recent years, the "three guarantees" subsidy standard has also been continuously improved.
She observed that under the "three guarantees" policy, compared with the traditional eating habits of some farmers and herdsmen, the school diet is richer, and meat, eggs, milk, vegetables and fruits are provided daily.
During the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, Tibet took the construction of boarding schools as the main focus of its work to promote the leapfrog development of education in Tibet, and the conditions for running compulsory education were greatly improved. Xing Junli said: "Especially in the past 10 years, from the conditions of school buildings to the quality of teaching, it has been the fastest stage of education development in Tibet. ”
From previous research on education in Tibet, she learned that nearly 90% of the teachers in boarding schools in agricultural and pastoral areas are Tibetan teachers, who are proficient in Tibetan and Chinese, and students have a good language environment. In accordance with the Outline for Basic Education Curriculum Reform (for Trial Implementation) promulgated by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Tibet implements curriculum management at the national, local and school levels. "Therefore, Tibetan has been included in the compulsory subjects from kindergarten to high school, and a considerable part of the kindergarten curriculum developed in Tibet involves Tibetan folklore, food and other cultural content."
Xing Junli said that the contribution of Tibetan boarding education to the development of Tibet's education is self-evident, and all experienced and beneficiaries can see it, which not only guarantees the right of Tibetan students to receive education fairly, but also plays a great role in balanced education, while greatly reducing the dropout rate. (End)