China News Service, Beijing, March 18: Title: Boarding education protects the educational rights of Tibetan ethnic minorities

　　Author Liang Junyan, researcher at the Institute of History, China Tibetology Research Center

　　The full enjoyment of human rights by everyone is the great dream of human society and the common goal that people of all ethnic groups in China have long pursued and worked tirelessly for.

Modern education in Tibet achieves leap-forward development

　　The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 ushered in a new era of equality, unity, and mutual assistance among all ethnic groups in China.

China promotes educational equity and protects the educational rights of ethnic minorities by developing schools at all levels and types in ethnic minority areas, organizing preparatory classes and ethnic minority classes, promoting boarding education in vast agricultural and pastoral areas, and focusing on running higher education in ethnic minority areas.

　　In 1956, Mr. Sherao Gyatso, the Chinese Buddhist master, pointed out that “the government allocates financial funds to build fixed school buildings and provide students with food and accommodation to solve the problems of school buildings and student supply. Schools can be easily established and consolidated. Developing schools in minority areas Education is the foundation of all construction projects in minority areas."

　　In old Tibet, only the nobility, which accounted for less than 5% of the population, had the right to education. Serfs and slaves, who accounted for 95% of the population, were almost all illiterate and had no right to education.

Since its peaceful liberation, with the support of the central government, Tibet has attached great importance to the excavation, inheritance and protection of the excellent traditional culture of all ethnic groups, continuously improved the level of public cultural services, vigorously promoted the use of the national common spoken and written language, encouraged all ethnic groups to learn each other's spoken and written languages, and effectively guaranteed Citizens’ right to education.

In the classroom of Shanghai Experimental School in Shigatse City, Tibet, children read the text aloud.

Photo by Zhang Xuejun

　　From 1951 to 2020, the state has invested a total of 223.965 billion yuan in education funds to promote Tibet to establish a modern education system covering preschool education, basic education, vocational education, higher education, continuing education, and special education, which has been implemented throughout the Tibet Autonomous Region for 15 years. Publicly funded education.

Since 2015, the education level in Tibet has been greatly improved through the implementation of "group-based" assistance for educational talents.

　　Official statistics show that Tibet currently has 3,409 schools of all levels and types, with more than 944,000 students enrolled. The gross enrollment rate of preschool education reaches 89.52%, the consolidation rate of compulsory education reaches 97.73%, and the gross enrollment rate of high school reaches 91.07%.

Data from the seventh national census show that the number of people with a university education per 100,000 people in Tibet has increased from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020.

On December 28, 2018, the unveiling ceremony of Tibet Tibetan Medical College was renamed Tibet Tibetan Medicine University and was held in Lhasa.

It is reported that Tibet Medical College was established in September 1989 and is the only independently established Tibetan medicine higher education institution in the world.

Photo by He Penglai

Education changes destiny

　　The subject of my research is Tibet. Every year I go to various regions in Tibet to conduct field research, and I have encountered many cases where education has changed destiny.

For example, in early September 2023, during my research in Linzhilang County, Tibet, I met Dorje, an enthusiastic "post-90s" Tibetan driver. He accumulated wealth through personal hard work, engaged in transportation, digging Cordyceps and other hard work , then purchased and rented out excavators, owned two Tibetan-style single-family villas in Lang County, and also purchased more than 100 square meters of commercial housing in Linzhi City, greatly improving his living standards.

Dorje himself had always deeply regretted that he had not been admitted to college, so he attached great importance to his family's education and sent his children to Linzhi City to receive a better education.

With Dorje's help, his younger brother and sister went to a boarding school in the county to attend middle school, and later were admitted to Tibet University for Nationalities.

We encountered many cases like this during our research in Tibet.

On March 14, 2023, Lhapa Tsering, a Tibetan language teacher at the No. 1 Primary School in Lhasa, Tibet, asked a question in class.

Photo by Li Lin

　　Many of my Tibetan colleagues and friends from Tibet have changed their destiny through boarding education.

My good friend Professor Zhuoma was born in 1954. Since her family lived in Bayi Town, in order to go to school, she had to live in a county primary school more than 20 kilometers away from her home.

The living conditions in the 1950s were far worse than they are now. More than a dozen children slept in Datongbu and had to bring their own food. After graduating from elementary school, she continued to attend middle school in Linzhi County (now Bayi District, Linzhi City). I live on campus during weekdays and go home on weekends.

　　In 1971, Dolma went to Beijing to study as an undergraduate at the Minzu University of China (now the University for Nationalities of China). After graduating in early 1976, he returned to Tibet to work and grew into a scientific researcher engaged in theoretical research in Tibetan universities.

She told me that although the school conditions at that time were not as good as they are now, if it had not been for the boarding system implemented in the school at that time, she would not have been able to go to school.

Because Tibet is vast and sparsely populated, only county towns have formal schools. If you want to receive education, you can only live in a county school.

On October 13, 2023, Nimarazeng (second from left), a sixth-grade class member of Sinopec Primary School in Bangor County, made tsampa in the school cafeteria. The children said that their breakfast was mainly tsampa.

Most of the students in grades four to six in this school are boarding students.

Photo by Jiang Feibo

　　Professor Sherab Nyima, a senior scholar and expert on Tibetan history whom I am familiar with, also benefited from boarding education.

He recalled: "My mother was a former serf, and no one in the family was literate before liberation. Today, all five of my brothers and sisters have graduated from university. I am now a second-level professor and doctoral supervisor at the university."

　　There is a saying that no matter where you come from, as long as you receive education, you have the opportunity to change your destiny, and it is true.

Professor Hironima has been engaged in higher education for a long time. He believes: "The existence of boarding schools has both objective and subjective needs. It is unimaginable that without these schools, how many people would lose their opportunities for development."

The Datze District Central Primary School located in Lhasa, Tibet was fully put into use in March 2016. The school is responsible for the food, clothing, housing and transportation of all students in the school.

The picture shows the first-year students of the school lining up to get meals under the guidance of the life teacher.

Photo by Zhang Wei

　　In order to allow more and more children to go out of the mountains and realize their dreams, many Tibetan aspiring young people who have graduated from universities have returned to their hometowns to contribute their knowledge and talents to the construction of their hometowns.

Their personal experiences prove that education is the key to finding a way out and changing destiny.

Tibetan education will be better tomorrow

　　Gesandji, who has been teaching in Medog County for more than 20 years, believes: "In the past, the goal of our education was to have a place to live, and to study; now it has become a good education." However, some people are concerned about the development of Tibetan education. Either cannot see it, or turn a blind eye, or even deliberately discredit it with ulterior motives.

In fact, there are boarding schools in many places in the world. Some countries have problems. They should review themselves and take practical actions to seriously solve them, instead of wearing tinted glasses and imagining and stigmatizing Tibet in China today from a Western colonial perspective. Boarding education.

On November 25, 2022, students were conducting football training on the plateau court of Jiali County Middle School in Nagchu City, Tibet.

It is understood that this plateau stadium with an altitude of 4,500 meters is where more than 2,500 students in the school take physical education classes and is also a venue for football training.

Photo by Sequduoji 

　　The development of education in Tibet has not only improved the cultural quality of local people of all ethnic groups, but also provided strong talent support for Tibet's economic and social development and civilizational progress. The achievements are huge.

　　Of course, we are also clearly aware that it is not easy to run education on the vast snow-covered plateau, and it is even more difficult to run modern education in Tibet, which does not have a strong foundation. Currently, the high-quality development of Tibetan education still faces many challenges. For example, the regional distribution of educational resources is uneven, teachers are insufficient, and the quality of education cannot meet the increasing needs of the people.

The Chinese government is taking relevant measures, and all sectors of society are supporting the development of local education in Tibet in different ways and making valuable efforts to solve these difficulties and problems. We have reason to believe that the future of Tibetan education will be even better.

About the Author:

Photo provided by interviewee

　　Liang Junyan, female, Han nationality, born in 1978 in Fukang, Xinjiang, has a PhD in history and is a researcher at the Institute of History at the China Tibetology Research Center.

The main research directions are the modern history of Tibet and the history of relations between Britain, India and China’s Tibet.