''My home is in the countryside. My mother used to
be a serf. She has never attended school.'' said
Chung-chung, a student at the Department of Mathematics in
the University of Tibet. " I'm the first university
student in my family. I received a free education from
primal school to university, she said.
The
University of Tibet has a student population of 1,037; about
80 percent are Tibetans and 443 are women who Comprise 42
percent of the total. Many students like Chung-chung
are from rural or pastoral areas. The university
has a facuity of 591; 66.3 percent are Tibetans and 277 are
women.In 1989 the state provided funding for the Tibetan
Medical institute, with most Tibetan features. There,
classes are taught in the Tibetan language. Most of the
students are of the Tibetan nationality; one-third of them
are women.
''Forty years ago, it was
completely impossible for us to '' said student study
Tibetan medical science and medicines.Degyi, ''in Tibet,
doctors of Tibetan medicine are highly regarded. People
consider them to be cl kind of 'god who can save lives.. But
in old Tibet, women were referred to as 'an ominous thing'
and 'half human being and half monster,' and were not
allowed to study Tibetan medical science or Tibetan
medicines. We are women of a lucky generation, just like my
came,- she said, Degyi means happiness in Tibetan.
There are several women teachers at the
Tibetan Medical Institute. They say they believe
their women students study especially hard. AIl
students are required to memorize ''The Four-volume Medical
Code. '' a text of 67,000 words, the women students usually
are found better in memorizing results than their male
counterparts. Perhaps they realize how difficult t is for
them to get the chance to go to the institute.
The state has a policy that allows students to
receive a free education in Tibet, from the primary school
level to the university and institute. This
preferential policy is only practiced in Tibet. In old
Tibet, there were no modern schools and no university. Today
in Tibet, students have the chance to attend one university
or three institutes.
Until 1993, 2,240
students were enrolled at the university and institute
level; women made up 30-40 percent of the student body. It
has been found that the women students study harder and many
have achieved excellence in their fiends of study. Choedhar
for example, who graduated from the English Department at
the University of Tibet, now continues her advanced studies
at the University of Berne in Switzerland.
G.yang-can, a young chemistry teacher who
graduated the University of Tibet, is the first
Tibetan to study for a doctorate in the United States. In
1989 the Central Institute for Nationalities offered the
first class for master's students; nine were Tibetans and
two were women Tibetans. These women, Lamo-mtsho and Yang
Jiefen, have both received their master's degrees in law.
Women didn't have the chance to receive an
education the old Tibet, when lamaseries, the old-style
official schools and a few private schools excluded females.
At that time the majority of Tibetan women were
illiterate.
After the peaceful liberation of
Tibet in 1951, women who were originally slaves, serfs or
secants became part Of the first coup of women to receive an
education. Leaden, the former deputy editor-in-chief of the
Tibetan edition of ''Tibetan Daily'' as among that group.
When Lhadon was 10, both of her parents died
of pestilence which claimed half the population of her
village, radon was forced to herd cattle to support herself.
In 1951 an advanced party of the People's
Liberation Army passed through her home village. The
soldiers helped the Tibetans carry water and firewood. The
serfs called them "buddha's soldiers.'' Lhadon very
much admired a woman oldies who worked as an interpreter of
the Tibetan language, after the soldiers left. Lhadon
decided to join the army. She balked for three days and
nights alone in mountains and finally fund a group of P.L.A.
soldiers. She joined the P.L.A. and 1 allowed the army to
Lhasa. She has been a member of the propaganda team when the
P.L.A. built the Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet highways.
Because of her youth, the army later sent her
to sturdy at the Tibet military region's cadre school. In
1950 she went to Beijing to study at the Central Institute
for Nationalities. In 1959 she returned to Tibet as the
first woman institute graduate, and worked at the newly
established Tibetan edition of ''Tibetan Daily.'' She has
been there for the past 30 years,
According to
the late Premier Zhou Enlai's instructions, in 1961 the
Central Institute for Nationalities ran an ancient Tibetan
language research class for postgraduate students, Kalsang,
the daughter of a slave, attended this class. Today she
teaches at the University of Tibet, Lhadon, Kalsang and many
of their classmates represent the first group of women
intellectuals in Tibet.
Modern, regular
education was established after the peaceful liberation of
Tibet, while the rapid development of education for young
Tibetan women began in 1959 after the Democratic Reform.
Emancipated serfs sent their daughters to primary schools,
high schools and universities. Hence, the first elevation of
female Tibetan students appeared in Tibetan history. From
1959 to 1988, there were 9,307 university students,61,700
high school students, 17, 1 19 technical secondary school
students and 220,000 primary school students; among them
were many young women.
In 1986 the
''compulsory Education Law of the People's Republic of
China'' was promulgated. Article 6 of the law stipulates:
''All children who have reached the age of six shall enroll
in school and receive compulsory education for the
prescribed number of years, regardless of sex, nationality
or race. In areas where that is not possible, the beginning
of schooling may be postponed to the age of seven.'' Article
12 stipulates: ''The State Council and the local people's
governments at various levels shall be responsible for
raising funds for the operating expenses and capital
construction investment needed for the implementation of
compulsory education, and the funds must be fully
guaranteed.''
The promulgation of the
Compulsory Education Law has once again stressed the
education of female children. Beginning in 1985, the Tibetan
Autonomous Region carried out the policy of supplying meals,
clothing and lodging for primary and high school students in
the impoverished areas, and provided boarding school for
students living in the vast farming and pastoral areas.
Consequently, the rate of female children going to school
has steadily increased. In 1993 the school entrance rate of
school age children rose to 60.4 percent, an increase of 20
percent from 1986.
In order to help Tibet
develop its educational system, the state has run Tibetan
High Schools. Tibetan Technical Secondary Schools and
classes for Tibetan students in the country's interior.
Currently 1 1.000 Tibetan students are studying ' 75 schools
in 25 provinces, cities, autonomous regions or attached to
the state ministries and commissions. The state aye for
their food, clothing, lodging and tuition.
In
the autumn of 1992, 279 high school students who had
graduated from the inland schools participated the
nationwide diversity and college enrollment examination. A11
of them asses the examination, And another 600 Tibetan
graduates of technical secondary schools returned to Tibet.
Senam Dolma, a graduate of the Second Nursery
location School in Tianjin found that there were only two
kindergartens in her hometown of Xigaze which were unable to
meet the needs of pre-school age children. She thought that
in order to raise the cultural level of the Tibetan nation,
that fluency should begin with the children. So she set up
the first private indergarten, and received about
100 children in the at two weeds of registration.
In recent years, not only city residents but
farmers in the countryside have also begun to focus on
pre-school education. In 1982 Tiering Dolma set up the first
farmer-run kindergarten in Zedang. Shannan Prefecture. Over
the ten past years, this kindergarten has sent more than 500
farmers children to the key primary schools in the Shannan
Prefecture. Some of the children were later admitted to
inland Tibetan schools.
Beginning in October
1989, the China Youth Development Foundation carried out the
''Hope Project'' throughout the counts. The project enables
children who have dropped out of school because of poverty
to return to education. In June 1992 the ''Hope Project''
was carried out in Tibet. By 1994 it had collected 1 .97
million yuan, and helped to build eight Hope Primary Schools
and offer two Hope Classes. Their efforts enabled 1000
children return to the classroom. Among the children who
received aid, many are girls.
To wipe out
illiteracy among women is an important task for uplifting
the cultural level of Tibetan women. For more than ten
years, women's organizations at all levels in Tibet have
organized literacy classes in the rural and pastoral areas.
In 1978 Kalsang Choedon ran a literacy class in Kaduo
Village. Nedong Country, persuading illiterates aged 1 5-45
to participate. Most of the students were women.
In the beginning, only a few people went to
her class. But those who participated soon showed their
ability and now they can keep accounts and read directions
for farm chemicals and synthetic fertilizers. From that time
on, more and more women have attended the class. By 1990,
149 villagers had passed the countywide examinations and
obtained a certificate of literacy. Among them, 121 are
women.
Today there are only seven women in the
village who are considered illiterate. Kalang Choedon has
been awarded a prize for her efforts to eliminate
illiteracy, which she keeps in a place of honor in her home.
In the past five years about 26,000 women have
learned how to read and write. The outcome of that education
Tibetan women have received ls beneficial not only to the
development of the local agricultural production, but also
for the cultivation of the next generation.
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