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2026.07.09 21:20 GMT+8

Why boarding schools matter: A veteran teacher's 30 years in Xizang

Updated 2026.07.09 21:20 GMT+8
CGTN

Thondup Drolma spends time with students during a break at Nimajiangre Township Central Primary School, Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region, October 15, 2025. /CGTN

Thondup Drolma spends time with students during a break at Nimajiangre Township Central Primary School, Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region, October 15, 2025. /CGTN

Thondup Drolma teaches a mathematics class at Nimajiangre Township Central Primary School, Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region, October 15, 2025. /CGTN

Thondup Drolma runs alongside students during a morning exercise session at Nimajiangre Township Central Primary School, Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region, October 15, 2025. /CGTN

Thondup Drolma tucks a student into bed during her nightly dormitory rounds at Nimajiangre Township Central Primary School, Maizhokunggar County, Lhasa, Xizang Autonomous Region, October 15, 2025. /CGTN

For 33 years, Thondup Drolma has taught children in one of China's highest and most remote regions.

At more than 4,000 meters above sea level, her work extends far beyond the classroom. She also accompanies students to meals, checks on them in the dormitories every night and comforts them when they are sick.

When Drolma first began teaching in 1992, she worked in a tiny mountain classroom with just 17 students. Back then, many children never made it beyond the early grades.  

Today, thanks to the expansion of boarding schools, children from even the most remote pastoral communities have access to a quality education.

Looking back on more than three decades, Drolma says the greatest reward is watching generations of children grow up and build lives their parents once could only imagine.

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