Education investments see local students thrive

Many families in the Xizang autonomous region wanted their children to enjoy high-quality education near their homes, with a standard on par with the developed regions of China. Now they are seeing their expectations become true with schools established with the help of other regions Beijing, Jiangsu and Shanghai.

Choyang Lhamo, a resident in Lhasa, the capital city of Xizang, is one of the parents with a child being offered such an opportunity.

"I'm happy to see that our son had the option — to stay in a local school with the same quality as the excellent schools in regions like Beijing and Jiangsu," the mother said.

Beijing municipality and Jiangsu province began to build their experimental schools in Lhasa in 2014.

Choyang Lhamo's son is now a student in the Jiangsu Experimental Middle School in Lhasa.

The school not only enrolls students in Lhasa, but also those from across Xizang.

Karma Chuwang is a second-year student at the middle school. He is from a herders' family in the county of Gerze in Ngari prefecture.

"The school has basketball and football fields, a stadium and lifts, as well as all kinds of electronic devices for teaching," Karma Chuwang said. "We didn't have those luxuries in my former primary school in Gerze."

In line with the autonomous region's "three exemptions" policy, students from farmers' or herders' families, as well as those from lowincome urban families, are exempted from costs of meals, accommodation and tuition.

According to Yin Fei, headmaster of the school, Jiangsu province has dispatched hundreds of teachers to work at the school. "These teachers have brought in their advanced teaching experience and enhanced the school's faculty."

Wu Sudong is one of the teachers from Jiangsu. He said he has been deeply impressed with the students' strong willingness to learn.

"The students are so eager to learn that they will not be confined to their desks. They sometimes approach me to ask questions and better interact," Wu said.

Yin said the Jiangsu teachers' activities are not limited to the school. They have traveled extensively across the rest of Xizang to share their experiences and insights with local teachers.

Their most recent move was a visit to Drachen county in Nagchu city in June. The Jiangsu teachers had held exchanges with local schools and shared their expertise with local teachers.

Like Beijing and Jiangsu, Shanghai has also injected its advantageous educational resources in Xizang by establishing an experimental school in the city of Shigatse.

Established in 2004 with funding from the Shanghai municipal government, the school is one of the earliest educational assistance projects in Xizang.

Since that year, Shanghai has invested a total of 100 million yuan ($13.76 million) into this school, making it one of the few schools in Xizang that offer 12-year schooling from the primary to senior middle school stage.

Zhang Xiaobo, an Aid-Xizang official from Shanghai and headmaster of Shigatse Shanghai Experimental School, said one of the missions for Shanghai's educational assistance in Shigatse is helping to improve the weak links of the local education sector as a whole.

For this purpose, Shanghai has invested another 200 million yuan in various schools in Shigatse to improve infrastructure, train teachers and build digital platforms for teaching.