China Headlines: Tibetan dreams kept alive at city schools

Tenzin Tsedring's dream job is apt, given the Tibetan teen's studies under a scheme aimed at training more professionals for the underdeveloped region.

The student of a selective Beijing school for Tibetans wants to become an engineer, "preferably in the environment sector in my hometown".

"Every time I take a train back to Lhasa, I'm shocked by the garbage along the railway line. I want to do something to improve the plateau environment," she says.

Tenzin Tsedring, 16, is one of over 800 Tibetans in grades 10, 11 and 12 at Beijing Tibet High School. They have stood out from the thousands who apply each year to attend schools in big Chinese cities through an elite stream of Tibet's education program that is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Tenzin Tsedring feels emotionally attached to Beijing Tibet High School because it's her father's alma mater.

One of seven children from an impoverished family from the suburbs of Lhasa, her father, Wangdu, was the first person in his village to travel outside Tibet. He left home for Beijing Tibet High School in 1988, just a few years after such city schools were established by the central government exclusively for Tibetans.

He studied for four years in Beijing -- including one year as a prep student and three years of middle school -- before moving on to a vocational school in the central province of Henan.

After graduation, Wangdu secured a teaching job at a junior high school in Lhasa. He has sent hundreds of children to schools and universities across China, with most returning to Tibet after graduation.

Of the 32,000 Tibetans who have studied in cities over the past three decades, some 90 percent have returned home after completing their studies, according to the regional education bureau.

CHANGING FATE

When Wangdu was a child, rural Tibet had a severe shortage of laborers and many parents kept their children at home to do farm work. China's one-child policy did not apply to Tibetan farmers, and devout Buddhists sent at least one of their children to monasteries. Some parents also arranged for their children to become apprentice carpenters or blacksmiths at private workshops.

From 1984, the government exempted tuition fees and offered free food and lodging for all primary and secondary school students from Tibetan farming families. Changing the fate of thousands of people who could have remained shepherds for life, the policy was the first big move in a regional education drive seen as crucial to developing Tibet.

Since 2012, the region has led China in education by providing 15 years of free schooling, from kindergarten through senior high school. In other parts of the country, children receive only nine years of free education.

Wangdu always encourages his students to "chase their dreams and see the wide world" in addition to learning from books. "This is also what I used to tell my daughter."

"In fact, the farther you go, the closer you feel to your hometown at heart," says Yeshe Tenzin, an English teacher with Tibet University.

Another graduate from Beijing Tibet High School, he attended university in Xiamen and also studied at the University of Kansas in the United States.

"I'm leading students to make comparisons between English, Tibetan and Mandarin and their respective cultures," says Yeshe Tenzin, who is proficient in all three languages.

He remembers with fondness his school days in Beijing. "We had just begun to learn Mandarin, and often made funny mistakes."

One of his classmates wrote in an essay, "My teacher runs as fast as a dog."

Most of the early graduates secured government jobs in their hometowns. The recent two decades of social and economic development have created more diverse job opportunities.

Rigzin Sherab, who studied at Beijing Tibet High School in the 1990s, runs a cheese processing plant in Lhasa and plans to expand his business by teaming up with a Beijing firm to make organic cheese.

"I want to bring quality Tibetan cheese to customers across the world and let them know Tibet has its own entrepreneurs," he says.

KEEPING IDENTITY

Vice Principal Zhang Mei has worked at Beijing Tibet High School for more than two decades. She describes the students of today as "naughtier, more self-centered but more creative and independent" than their fathers' generation.

Some people criticize city schools for having an assimilating effect, isolating young Tibetans from their homeland's unique culture, language and religion.

Zhang, however, claims such critics have "ulterior motives". "It's up to the people involved to tell whether a project is good or bad," she says.

The vice principal has faith in the empowering effect of Tibet's education drive -- not just for youngsters, but for communities. "Today, parents know that education does not just change the fate of individuals, but also that of families, Tibet and China in general," she says.

Zhang remembers a conversation with one Beijing Tibet High School graduate. "She told me her mother had just two dreams: to stand on the main podium of Tiananmen Square where Mao announced the founding of new China, and to visit her daughter's school."

Last year, the woman helped her mother fulfil her dreams. "Her mother was 60-something, a herder and housewife most of her life," says Zhang. "She toured every corner of the campus. She was so excited that she even tried running on our athletic track."

The elderly visitor was grateful to the school for making her daughter what she is: a well-educated wage earner, and a Tibetan at heart.

Most teachers at the school are Han, the ethnic group that makes up the bulk of China's population. "But teachers also come from Tibet to teach Tibetan language and culture," explains Zhang.

Ngawang Tenzin is one of two teachers of Tibetan history, culture and literature at the school.

Feeling a single class a week was inadequate, he started an optional course on Indian classical logic this semester. "So many students applied that we had to switch to a bigger classroom," Ngawang Tenzin says.

A lover of Tibet, he insists city schools for Tibetans should include more courses on Tibetan language and culture, so that young Tibetans can have a deeper understanding of their own identity.

His view is echoed by Tenzin Tsedring.

"Diversified cultures connect young people like me to the world, but it's our own identity and the Tibetan culture that give us peace of mind and keep our dreams alive wherever we go," she says. Enditem

Xinhua correspondents Zhang Jingpin from Lhasa and Tang Zhaoming from Beijing also contributed to this repo