Free education in Xizang for the benefit of the people

Autonomous region leads way in teaching all children regardless of their background

Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region has achieved high-quality development in education, featuring broad coverage, 15 years of free schooling and a modern education system, said Wang Haizhou, chief of the Publicity Department of the Xizang Committee of the Communist Party of China.

"We are proud to say that in today's Xizang, no children drop out of school because of poverty," Wang said. "On the contrary, most of them have changed the fate for themselves and their families through education and have led a happy life."

Wang made the remarks at a news conference in Beijing held by the Information Office of the State Council on Nov 10. At the event, the office released a white paper titled "CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievement". Xizang's educational achievements are a part of the white paper.

According to it, Xizang has established a modern education system that covers preschool, fundamental, vocational, higher-learning and continuing education, as well as special education for students with physical difficulties. At present, the region has 3,409 schools of various types and at various levels, hosting more than 944,000 students.

Wang said that the full coverage for youths is made possible with a 15-year publicly funded, free-of-charge education system from kindergartens to senior middle schools.

The official said, over the past decade, Xizang's authorities have devoted energy to achieving balanced educational development, with a focus on rural areas and families with difficulties.

Since 2012, Xizang has invested more than 7.83 billion yuan($1.1 billion) and completed 2,167 projects that improved the basic facilities of schools in rural areas in all 74 counties and districts of the autonomous region.

In addition to the 15 years of free education, students from herders and farmers' families now enjoy free meals, free lodging and free tuition at school, with subsidies from the government. According to Wang, since 2012, Xizang has invested more than 22 billion yuan in this "three-free" initiative, benefiting 6.55 million students in total.

"Over the past decade, we have lifted the amount of the 'three-free' subsidies eight times," Wang said. "The average amount of subsidies is currently 1,000 yuan per student a year."

The development of education in Xizang has not only been endorsed by local residents but recognized by experts at home and abroad.

Milestone

Kelsang Drolma is a researcher at the China Tibetology Research Center based in Beijing. She said Xizang is a pilot region in China to offer 15 years of publicly funded, free-of-charge education.

"This is a milestone not only for Xizang but for China as a whole, considering the practice is first implemented in a plateau region that is called the 'roof of the world' and features the toughest conditions for developing education," Kelsang Drolma said.

She said that ensuring all people have the right to education is one of the historic achievements that Xizang has made over the past seven decades.

"In the past, education was seen as a privilege for a small group of people," Kelsang Drolma said."The general public — serfs, herders and farmers and other similar groups — were denied access to education."

The researcher went on to say that, in the past, the traditional education sector was dominated by monasteries and noble families.

"As education was only accessible for a very small proportion of the population, the rate of illiteracy was staggeringly high — as high as 95 percent of the total population," Kelsang Drolma said.

She said that things began to change in 1951, when Xizang saw its peaceful liberation. The first modern school in Xizang — the Chamdo Primary School — was founded that year, kicking off modern education development in the autonomous region.

"Offering education services to the general public has been an extremely challenging mission for many decades in this sparsely populated plateau region," Kelsang Drolma said.

"Thanks to the strong will of officials and residents, the huge and sustained investment from the central and local governments, as well as the assistance from other regions of the country, Xizang's education sector has kept up with the overall development of the nation and has even taken the lead in some fields over the recent years," she added.

While Xizang is the region that pioneered 15 years of schooling free of charge, its enrollment rate from kindergartens to senior middle schools has surpassed the national average in recent years, Kelsang Drolma said, citing data released by the National Statistics Bureau in 2021.

"Xizang currently has seven higher-learning institutions, which can train graduates with bachelor's, master's and PhD degrees. In addition, another 80,000 students from Xizang are studying in various universities and colleges in the rest of the country," the researcher said. "This has helped to build a talent pool of high-quality professionals to empower the all-around socioeconomic development of the autonomous region."

"Developing an education system with equality and inclusiveness to benefit as many people as possible is one of the goals of the United Nation's 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda," Kelsang Drolma said. "And this is also the essence of China's education industry."

She noted that improved education is conducive to promoting social stability and economic development.

"When young people have a longer period of schooling — 15 years or more — they are in a better position to develop their careers, enjoying better employment opportunities and having better opportunities for entrepreneurship," Kelsang Drolma said. "This is good for the society, for their families and for themselves."

Achievement

Gai Lin is the secretary-general of the EU-China Friendship Association in the European Parliament. He said he has visited Xizang several times and the region's development in education has left a deep impression.

"It is a great achievement that everybody in this sparsely populated region has equal access to educational services," Gai said.

He once visited a primary school in the county of Gyirong, where students studied and lived in the school on weekdays and went home to their families on weekends.

He said many young people in Xizang told him that education is the game changer for their lives.

"In Lhasa, a young man called Champa told me that education can help people realize their dreams," Gai said. "Champa was always self-motivated in his years at school. He loved culture and history and had career development plans relating to the fields. He recently graduated from a local university and got a job in Xizang Culture Museum in Lhasa."

Equality

At the news conference on Nov 10, Wang of the Xizang publicity department said the autonomous region highlights equal access to education resources and services between urban and rural areas.

"For educational equality, Xizang has attached great importance to improving education in rural areas and will continue to do so in the future," Wang said.

He said there are plans in place to allocate resources to the countryside.

"While sparing no effort to improve educational infrastructure in rural areas, we are encouraging more teachers to work in rural schools by substantially raising their pay," Wang said.

The official noted that the promotion of digitalized education can lead to the sharing of resources and thus help shorten the gap between rural and urban areas.

Sichod Drolma, a 15-year-old student at Damshung Middle School, is one of the beneficiaries of the development of rural education in Xizang.

Her hometown is the township of Lungring in Damshung county, where the average altitude is more than 4,000 meters.

She now studies at the middle school featuring Tibetan-Chinese dual-language teaching at the county seat. All her classmates are from various villages and townships on the grasslands.

Sichod Drolma is from a four-child family. Her parents earn a living through herding and doing odd jobs in the neighborhood.

Tseten Dorje, the father, said: "I didn't have much schooling when I was a child because my family was poor. But today, a family's financial status is no more a problem to support children's schooling."

He went on to explain that there is no pressure to support his four children in school because of the 15-year publicly funded education system and Xizang's practice to offer free meals, free accommodation and free tuition to students from herders' and farmers' families.

Languages

Another successful practice in Xizang's education is dual-language teaching, using both Tibetan and standard Chinese.

Sonam Drolma is another researcher at the China Tibetology Research Center, who studied dual-language education in Xizang for years.

She said that in Xizang, there are many successful cases in dual-language teaching that educational authorities in other autonomous regions can study and learn from.

When attending a forum sponsored by the United Nations in 2022, she shared the experiences and stories of dual-language teaching practices in Xizang.

She said at present, all schools in Xizang use Tibetan and standard Chinese in teaching.

"The Tibetan language, in both oral and written forms, is the important vehicle for expression and communication among the residents and is the carrier of local culture," Sonam Drolma said. "Xizang's regulations on education stipulate that teaching with the Tibetan language is compulsory, aiming to protect the language and culture unique to the plateau region."

She noted that teaching in standard Chinese is also an important part of the local education system. It aims to help people in Xizang better communicate with the rest of the country and the world, find more opportunities for their career development and, more importantly, promote the Tibetan language and local culture.

She cited the example of the Nagchu No 2 Senior Middle School in Lhasa. "We have arranged several foreign media tours of the school and there were intensive exchanges between the students and foreign journalists," Sonam Drolma said.

When asked whether teaching in Chinese will affect a student's use and inheritance of the Tibetan language, Namse Gonpo, a student, said:"Tibetan language is our mother tongue. We talk in the language with our family members and neighbors in our hometown, with our schoolmates at school. This is something deep-rooted in our life and deep in our hearts.

"At the school, we have classes — those related to the local language, culture and history — taught in Tibetan language. These classes always remind us of where we are from and enhance our sense of belonging.

"We have some other classes taught in standard Chinese, which helps us communicate with people from the rest of the country. On weekends or holidays, we like to visit popular tourist destinations in Lhasa, talking with visitors in standard Chinese.

"I believe fluency in standard Chinese will bring us to a broader world where we can find more opportunities for life in the future," the student was quoted by Sonam Drolma as saying.