Help for Tibetan EducationEducation in Tibet has made remarkable progress since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, especially when the system was reformed with opening-up policies in 1978.Before 1949, Tibet had only a few religious schools. Then the central government began to improve the education system in line with the Law on Regional National Autonomy. Today, Tibet has 4,331 schools of different types, covering pre-schooling, primary, middle and technical schools, higher education, vocational, adult and distance-learning programmes, said sources from the Ministry of Education. Most children now attend school - 81 per cent compared with 2 per cent before 1949. The number of illiterates above the age of 15 has dropped to 41 per cent from 95 per cent before 1949, the ministry's statistics indicated. Tibetan students from low-income families can get money from the government to help them finish their studies, according to the ministry's Department for Ethnic Group Education. The central government has allocated 1.4 billion yuan (US$168 million) to education in Tibet over the past few decades. To accelerate the number of children going into primary and middle schools, the central government has invested another 130 million yuan (US$15.6 million) of special funds, the ministry's statistics indicated. Since the 1950s, some 20 provinces and municipalities have sent 6,640 teachers to Tibet to help with teaching programmes. Tibet also received more than 84 million yuan (US$10 million) from some better developed areas to spend on education during the 1995-97 period, according to the ministry. |
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