China pledges to send 3 out of every 10 Tibetan students to college

The government is planning to raise the higher education gross enrollment rate in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region to 30 percent in less than five years, meaning that three out of every ten Tibetan students will enter college by 2015, local officials said Monday.

Tibet's current gross enrolment rate stands at 23.4 percent, slightly lower than the national average of 26.5 percent, according to Song Heping, head of the regional government's education department.

The government has earmarked 3 billion yuan (461.5 million U.S. dollars) for boosting enrollment and development in all six of Tibet's higher education institutes between 2011 and 2015, Song said.

One-third of the funds will be invested in infrastructure, while the rest will be used to improve the quality of teaching and academic research in the six institutions.

More than 31,000 students, mostly ethnic Tibetans, currently study in Tibet's six universities and junior colleges. Of them, 718 are pursuing post-graduate degrees. In addition, many students from Tibet are studying in universities outside the region, officials said.

The figures, though not impressive compared with other parts of China, are remarkable for Tibet. The country did not have a single school within its borders before being peacefully liberated in 1951. Education at that time was taken care of by the region's monasteries, with limited educational access given only to monks and officials.

Between 1951 and 2010, the central government spent 40.73 billion yuan to build educational facilities in Tibet. The region's illiteracy rate for young and middle-aged people has fallen from 95 percent to 1.2 percent over the last six decades, according to a white paper issued by the State Council Information Office in July.

While the government's main focus has been placed on primary and secondary education in the past, higher education is about to receive a major boost.
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Source: Xinhua

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