Fifty Years of Educational Development

ZHOLMA YAMZONG

Article 9 of the 17-Article Agreement on the peaceful liberation of Tibet, signed by the Central Government and the local government of Tibet in May 1951, stipulates: "The spoken and written language, and the school education of the Tibetan ethnic group, will be developed step by step in accordance with actual conditions in Tibet." In May 1951, the Qamdo Primary School became the first school in the modern sense set up in the Tibet Plateau by the Central Government, ushering in a new epoch in modern education in Tibet.

SCHOOL EDUCATION BEFORE THE 1950S. Before the 1950s, there were three kinds of schools in Qamdo: monastic, officially operated and privately owned schools. Monastic schools. They were the major form of school education in Qamdo. Lamas served as teachers, sutras were the textbooks, and students were primarily monks. Poor monks were monastic slaves. These schools provided a mix of religious studies and other forms of education. Qambaling Monastery, the largest in Qamdo, offered special training programs. At the end of the 1940s, it opened a Tibetan medicine class lasting one year. Some of those who attended today form the backbone of Tibetan medicine. Officially operated schools. There was one primary school each where classes were taught in the official dialect in Chagyab, Yendum and Tangjam respectively. They were attended by 113 boy and girl students. The Baxoi county government also set up one school in Tonggar. These officially run schools recruited mainly from among the children of comparatively wealthy families. In Yanjin, Mangkang County, there was a primary school operated by a French Church, which enrolled some 20 boy and girl students. But, it had to close after only a few months under pressure from the Qamdo government. Privately owned schools. There were 11 schools of this kind in Qamdo, with a combined student body of some 100. They were set up to improve comprehension, reading and writing ability, and also teach grammar. Generally, each had one "classroom". Students were required to present gifts to the teacher when entering; they had to give daily necessities to the teachers, including zanba (roasted highland barley) and cow dung used as fuel. Children from poor families could not afford to attend schools, but some went to classes as the servants of children from wealthier families. Lack of education meant most serfs and slaves could not read and write then. In some counties in Qamdo, certain headmen or certain villages joined hands to run a private school. For example, Gari Boin and Nari Boin in Dengqen each ran a school which enrolled students in areas within their spheres of influence, or children of their friends.

FIRST MODERN SCHOOL IN QAMDO. In May 1951, Li Anzai and Yu Shiyu, both members of the PLA 18th Army, started to organize the Qamdo Primary School. On December 1950, the First Peoples Congress of the Qamdo Prefecture adopted a resolution on Creating Schools in Qamdo Area for the Development of the Educational Cause of the Tibetan People. Patriotic people in the upper strata were encouraged to donate money. The board directors, the Living Buddha Xiwala, Living Buddha Dege Salsang Wangdui, Li Anzai and Wei Kem, decided to hold a winter session for all who wished to study to learn to read and write mainly in Tibetan, but concurrently also in Chinese. The school was headquartered in a monastery in northwest Qamdo. The teaching staff included Li Anzai, Yu Shiyu, and some other Chinese and Tibetans. The winter session of the Qamdo Primary School opened in January 1951. With aid and support from patriotic people in the upper strata, Qamdo Primary School was officially launched in March ( renamed Qamdo Experimental Primary School later). On August 1, 1951, the Second Peoples Congress of Qamdo Area adopted the resolution on Creating on a Trial Basis Primary Schools in the Qamdo Area. With aid and support from PLA troops stationed in Qamdo, some primary schools were created in Yanjing, Dengqen, Bome and Zayu. By 1955, there were 12 primary schools with 600 students and 21 teachers. Schools in various counties offered four-grade courses, while the Qamdo Primary School taught six-grade courses. Curricula included Tibetan, Chinese, mathematics and common knowledge.

OTHER MODERN SCHOOLS. Following the Democratic Reform in 1959, the Central Government attached great importance to the creation of modern schools in Qamdo. Qamdo Prefectural Middle School was set up in 1959; Qamdo Prefectural Health School began in 1974; Qamdo Prefectural Teachers School was launched in 1974; Qamdo Prefectural Agricultural and Animal Husbandry School opened in 1975.

By 1982, there were eight middle schools in Qamdo. In 1988, the Qamdo Prefectural No.2 Middle School was established primarily for children from remote rural areas. During this period, technical training, adult education and anti-illiteracy schools developed apace.

Qamdo Teachers School. Located by the Ongqu River in the northwest suburb, the school covers an area of 10.6 hectares. Its constructed area of 8,822 square meters includes five labs, two computer rooms, two phonetics classrooms, and one library with a collection of 50,000 volumes. It has cultivated some 3,000 primary school teachers over the past 26 years.

Qamdo Prefectural No.2 Middle School. As most of its students come from the farming and pastoral areas, it is also called the Middle School for Ethnic Minorities.

From 1993 to 1997, the number of four-grade primary schools rose from 32 to 83; that of six-grade primary schools from 604 to 1,320; the number of primary school teachers from 499 to 1,244; the number of non-governmental primary and middle school teachers from 2,769 to 2,906; the number of primary school graduates from 1,466 to 1,867; the number of students who furthered their study in Tibetan-language classes from 188 to 238; the number of middle school students from 2,548 to 3,802; the number of middle-school graduates from 387 to 1,012; the number of university and secondary polytechnic school students from 182 to 245.

Over the past 50 years since Qamdo won liberation, it has seen the establishment of 181 schools, producing some 200,000 graduates. They include one teachers school with an establishment of 536 students; 14 middle schools with 4,446 students; 166 primary schools; and 985 training centers. The number of students attending schools now totals 69,500, and the number of teachers has risen to 4,492. The school age attendance rate has risen to 85 percent. In Qamdo, 22.6 percent of the people received six-year compulsory education in 1999.

Thus far, Qamdo has cultivated some 120,000 primary school graduates, 40,000 middle school graduates, 7,300 high school graduates, 12,000 secondary polytechnic school graduates, and some 3,000 college-level graduates.

It has received donations totaling some 2 million Yuan for construction of 16 schools, specially those for more than 2,000 children from poverty-stricken families.