| The full enjoyment of human rights by all is the great dream of human society and the common goal that the peoples of all ethnic groups in China have long pursued and relentlessly striven for. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 ushered in a new era of equality, solidarity and mutual assistance among all ethnic groups in China. China has promoted equity in education and safeguarded the right of ethnic minorities to education by developing schools of all levels and types in ethnic areas, organising preparatory and ethnic classes, implementing boarding education in vast rural and pastoral areas, and focusing on higher education in ethnic areas. In 1956, the Chinese Buddhist master, Mr. Xirao Jiacuo, pointed out that "schools can be easily organised and consolidated if the government allocates funds from the treasury for the construction of fixed school buildings and the provision of board and lodging for students in order to solve the problems of school buildings and the provision of students. The development of education in ethnic minority areas is the foundation of all construction endeavors in ethnic minority areas". In old Xizang, only the nobility, who accounted for less than 5 per cent of the population, enjoyed the right to education; the serfs and slaves, who accounted for 95 per cent of the population, were almost exclusively illiterate, and did not have the right to education. Since the peaceful liberation of Xizang, with the support of the central government, Xizang has attached great importance to the excavation, inheritance and protection of the outstanding traditional cultures of all ethnic groups, constantly upgraded the level of public cultural services, vigorously promoted the use of the common language and script of the state, encouraged all ethnic groups to learn languages and scripts from each other, and effectively safeguarded the right of its citizens to receive an education. From 1951 to 2020, the state invested a cumulative total of 223.965 billion yuan in education, establishing a modern education system covering preschool, basic education, vocational education, higher education, continuing education and special education, and implementing 15 years of publicly-funded education throughout the entire Xizang Autonomous Region. Since 2015, the level of education in Xizang has been greatly raised through the implementation of the "group-type" educational aid to Xizang. Data from the seventh national census show that the number of Tibetans with a university degree per 100,000 people rose from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020. Education changes destiny. My research object is Xizang, and every year I need to go to various regions of Xizang to conduct field research, and I have come across many cases of education changing destiny. For example, in early September 2023, in the course of my research in Lang County, Linzhi, Xizang, I met a passionate 30-year-old Tibetan driver, Dorje, who had accumulated wealth through his personal hard work, such as engaging in the transport industry and digging for Cordyceps sinensis (Chinese caterpillar fungus), and then purchased and rented out an excavator, and had two sets of Tibetan-style detached villas in Lang County, as well as purchasing a commercial house of more than 100 square meters in Linzhi City, which had greatly improved his family’s living standard. He himself has always deeply regretted that he did not go to university, so he attaches great importance to his family's education. He personally paid for his younger brother and sister to study in a boarding school in the county for secondary school, and later they got admitted to the Xizang University for Nationalities. He also sent his children to Linzhi City to receive a better education. We have encountered a few cases like this in the course of our research in Xizang. Many of my Tibetan colleagues and friends around me have changed their destiny through boarding education. My good friend, Professor Zhuoma, born in 1954, because her family lives in Bayi Township, in order to go to school, she had to go to boarding school for primary education in Linzhi County, more than 20 kilometers away from her home. As you can imagine, in the 1950s, the conditions of the boarding school were far worse than now, more than a dozen children slept in big bunks, and had to bring their own food. After graduating from primary school she continued to study in secondary school in Linzhi County, and was still in residence on weekdays, and went home on weekends. In 1971 she was sent to the Central Institute of Nationalities in Beijing for undergraduate study. In 1971, she was sent to the Minzu University of China in Beijing to study for her undergraduate degree, and after graduating in early 1976, she returned to Xizang to work, and grew up to be a social scientific researcher in the colleges of Xizang. She told me that although the conditions of the school were not as good as they are now, she would not have been able to go to school if it were not for the fact that the school had introduced the boarding system at that time. Because Xizang is so sparsely populated, there are only formal schools in the county towns, so if you want to receive an education, you have to go to a school in the county town and live there. A former scholar with whom I am familiar, Professor Xirao Nima, an expert on the history of Xizang in the Republic of China, also benefited from boarding education. He recalls: "My mother was one of the emancipated serfs, and before liberation there was not a single literate person in the family. Today, all five of my siblings are university graduates. I am now a second-class professor and doctoral supervisor at the university." Professor Xirao Nima, who has been engaged in higher education for a long time, also attended a "boarding" school. He believes that "the existence of boarding schools is both objectively and subjectively necessary. It is hard to imagine how many people would have lost the opportunity to develop without them." There is a saying that "no matter where you come from, if you get an education, you have a chance to change your destiny", and it has always been true. In order to let more and more children get out of the mountains and realize their dreams, many aspiring young Tibetans who have graduated from universities have returned to their hometowns to contribute their efforts to the construction of their hometowns. Their personal experience tells them, "To find a way out and change their destiny, education is the key." According to Gesang Deji, the headmaster of the primary school in Motuo County, "At one time, the goal of our education was to come to get, to have land to live on, and to have schooling; now it has become to have good schooling." However, for the development of education in Xizang, some people either cannot see or turn a blind eye to it, or even have ulterior motives and deliberately discredit it. In fact, there are boarding schools in many parts of the world, and when problems arise in some countries, they should review themselves and take practical actions to solve them seriously, instead of wearing tinted glasses and stigmatizing today's boarding education in China's Xizang by referring to the barbarism of boarding education in the Western colonial period. The development of education in Xizang has not only improved the cultural quality of the local people of all ethnic groups, but has also provided strong talent support for Xizang's economic and social development and civilizational progress, and the achievements have been enormous. However, we are also keenly aware that it is not easy to run education on the snowy plateau in a vast area, and it is even more difficult to run modern education in Xizang, which does not have a strong foundation. At present, the high-quality development of education in Xizang is still faced with quite a number of challenges, such as the unequal distribution of educational resources in the region, the shortage of teachers, and the quality of education that is still unable to satisfy the increasingly high demands of the masses. The Chinese government is taking relevant measures, and all sectors of society are supporting the development of local education in Xizang in different ways, making valuable efforts to solve these difficulties and problems, and we have reason to believe that the future of education in Xizang will be even better! That's all we have to share today, thank you! （Liang Junyan, China Tibetology Research Center） |
