China News Agency:

Traditional Tibetan culture has long been attracting attention from home and abroad, and education is also related to the future development of Tibet. Please give introductions in these two aspects. Thank you.

Norbu Dondrup:

Mr. Dawa, deputy director general of the United Front Work Department of CPC Tibet Autonomous Regional Committee, will give you an introduction on the education in the autonomous region.

Dawa:

Let me introduce the cultural aspect first. The central government always attaches great importance to the protection, inheritance and development of traditional Tibetan culture. The CPC Committee and government of Tibet Autonomous Region always places the protection and development of traditional Tibetan culture as an important part of economic and social development, and supports it with policies, projects, capital, technologies, talents and so on. The autonomous region collected, edited and published seven literature and art compendiums such as, "Compendium of Chinese dramas: Tibetan volume" and "Compendium of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance: Tibetan volume". Meanwhile, historical buildings like the Potala Palace have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List; while the Tibetan opera, the Epic of King Gesar and the Lum Medicinal Bathing of Sowa Rigpa (the Tibetan Medicine) have been included on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. There are also 89 national-level representative projects, 96 national-level representative inheritors, 460 autonomous region-level representative projects and 350 autonomous region-level representative inheritors in the autonomous region. Four organizations including the Potala Palace have been included on the list of National Key Organizations for Protecting Ancient Documents and Anthologies, and 291 ancient books have been included on the list of National Precious Ancient Books.

At the same time, the Central People's Government and the People's Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region have always protected the inheritance and development of minority languages. The regional government, according to relevant stipulations of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy, formulated rules on learning, using and developing Tibetan language; developed the Tibetan language teaching and textbook system from elementary school to high school; and has vigorously supported the production of Tibetan language newspapers, magazines, books, radio and television programs. These have effectively promoted the widespread use of the language. The Tibetan language has become the first Chinese minority language with international standards. Now, the Tibet Autonomous Region publishes over 100 kinds of books in Tibetan language every year. All these efforts make sure the Tibetan language continue to be used in radio broadcasts, television programs, online pages, newspapers and magazines, textbooks and other published books.

As for education, as the previous speakers have mentioned, the vast majority receiving education in old Tibet were children of aristocrats. Serfs, who made up 95 percent of the total population, had no right to education, and the illiteracy rate of young adults was around 95 percent. Since democratic reform, Qamdo Primary School, Lhasa Primary School, Lhasa Middle School and many other schools have expanded rapidly. Middle schools and primary schools were established in various prefectures and counties, with primary schools set up in most townships and some villages. In 1961, Lhasa Normal School, the first school for teachers in Tibet, officially opened, and since then, Tibet University, Tibet Agriculture and Animal Husbandry University, Tibetan Traditional Medicine College and Tibet Vocational Technical College have also been established. A relatively complete modern education system covering pre-school education, basic education, vocational education, higher education, adult education, and special education has been formed in Tibet, and the right to education for all ethnic groups is fully guaranteed.

By 2017, a total of 1,239 kindergartens, 806 primary schools, 132 junior and high schools and seven universities and colleges had been built in Tibet. The number of graduates from all kinds of schools increased from 18,000 in 1959 to over 530,000 in 2017. Other places in China also yielded a fruitful outcome in educating students from Tibet. Now, classes and schools for Tibetan students have opened in 21 provinces and municipalities, which have cultivated over 36,000 graduates with a diploma of technical secondary school or above. In 1985, the country began to cover all food and boarding fees, as well as basic expenses for study, for children of farmers and herdsmen and those from urban families with financial difficulties, and raised the standard 18 times in later years. Since 2012, Tibet has fully implemented the 15-year compulsory education policy and the level of protection has continuously improved. In 2018, the net enrollment rate of primary schools reached 99.5 percent; the gross enrollment rate of middle schools reached 99.5 percent; high schools reached 82.3 percent; and universities and colleges reached 39.2 percent. Each person in Tibet received 9.55 years of education on average. Thank you.