主题：【原编】资料：供反驳西藏的种族清洗和文化灭绝论 -- 雪个

1) Education in Tibet

At time of peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, illiteracy rate in Tibet was over 95%. Average level of education in Tibet after liberation still trailed those of other provinces. A study in 1990 revealed that 44.3% of people in Tibet were illiterate or semi-illiterate (national average was 15.88%), however it is a significant improvement compared to the pre-liberation days.

Before the liberation in 1951, there were 6 public schools and a few number of private schools in Tibet, enrolling about a thousand students in total, about 1% of all school-age children in Tibet. Figures from 1994 showed that Tibet has 3,477 elementary schools, enrolling over 23,000 students. There were 77 high schools, enrolling over 28,000 students. There were 16 vocational and technical schools, enrolling 4,800 students. There were 4 post-secondary institutions (“高等学校”是这个意思吗？) enrolling 3,299 students. 67% of school-age children attend schools.

Before the liberation in 1951, education was a privilege available only to elites who make up a very small percentage of Tibetan population. The law specifically forbade children of blacksmiths, pallbearers and butchers from attending schools (old Tibetan law also set the value of life for these people as a length of rope). After liberation everyone was given the right to attend school (however due to Tibet’s geography, a lower percentage of school-age children in rural Tibet actually attended schools)

Appendix:

Before the liberation in 1951, formal education in Tibet was almost non-existent, however its theological education was wide spread, and the education system was well-developed. Over Tibet’s thousands-year history prior to liberation, theological education was the predominant form of education in Tibet.

The most ancient form of religion in recorded Tibetan history was Bön. When Bön was the dominant religion in Tibet, theological education was already a significant activity in Tibetan society.

During the one thousand years between the time Buddhism reached Tibet until liberation, education in Tibet was heavily characterized by Tibetan Buddhism, reflected in the following areas: formalized theological education operated by monasteries, standardized curriculum, diversified educational methods, specialized instructors, and dedicated facilities for theological education.

In the Qing Dynasty, forms of education different from theological education began to appear. There were schools designed to train priest-administrators for the theocratic Tibetan system; there were secular schools teaching reading, writing, arithmetic and accounting, serving the children from aristocratic families who will become administrators and financial managers; there were also schools dedicated to teaching Tibetan medicine and astronomy.