Story of serf-born Tibetan shows education development in Xizang

Phung Tsering will never forget when he saw lords whipping serfs as a child. 

Born into a family of serfs in the Xigaze region of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region in 1941, Phung Tsering has witnessed the changes in Xizang after the peaceful liberation of Xizang in 1951 and democratic reform in 1959, which gave personal freedom and human dignity and value to residents in the region.

While thanking the liberation and democratic reform for assigning his family a house, Phung Tsering, who once lived in a rented house, has more to say about the education opportunities he and his children have enjoyed.

Unlike his parents, Phung Tsering was able to attend a primary school and he studied Tibetan, Chinese and math. He even went on to study at Peking University.

Nowadays, Phung Tsering is glad to see his children all have received a higher education. His oldest son works at the Song and Dance Ensemble of Xizang and his second eldest son is a fire fighter.

Phung Tsering is one of the many residents in Xizang who have access to education and enjoy a better life.

The results of the seventh national census showed that the number of college or university graduates per 100,000 inhabitants in Xizang had risen from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020. New entries into the region's workforce now have an average of 13.1 years of education, according to the white paper titled "CPC Policies on the Governance of Xizang in the New Era: Approach and Achievements."

Speaking at a side event of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council recently, Liang Junyan, a researcher at the Institute of History Studies of China Tibetology Research Center, said the right of residents in Xizang to education has been effectively guaranteed since the peaceful liberation.

Liang also pointed out that some people have ulterior motives to discredit the development of education in Xizang.

The expert noted that 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.

Other experts also spoke highly of China's efforts to guarantee ethnic minorities' right to education in its modernization.

Jia Chunyang, executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Security Studies of the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, noted that the Chinese government has continuously increased financial input in a bid to protect the Tibetan ethnic minorities' right to education.

Since 1985, Xizang has provided free accommodation and tuition for children of farmers and herdsmen on the basis of free compulsory education, Jia added.

From 2012 to 2022, the central government invested more than 251.51 billion yuan (around $35 billion) in Xizang's education. At present, the region has 3,409 schools of various types and at various levels, hosting over 944,000 students, said the white paper.

The gross enrollment rate for preschool education has reached 89.52 percent, the completion rate for compulsory education has reached 97.73 percent and the gross enrollment rate in senior high schools is 91.07 percent, according to the white paper.

Li Juan, a researcher from the Human Rights Studies Center of Central South University, said that China has continuously strengthened the legal basis for the protection of the right to education of ethnic minorities by formulating and implementing a series of education laws.

Through the laws, including the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy and the Law on Compulsory Education, the country supports the ethnic minority areas in popularizing compulsory education, developing education for ethnic minorities and guaranteeing the right to use and develop their own spoken and written languages.

At present, Xizang has established an online education platform for the whole region, and promoted internet access for all schools in the region, said Gong Xianghe, executive director of the Institute for Human Rights Studies of Southeast University.