Investment in education in Tibet reached 18.5 billion yuan in 2016, among which almost 2.5 billion yuan was used to build educational infrastructure. Besides, altogether 16 counties in Shigatse have achieved balanced development in national compulsory education. The number of ‘balanced counties’ has reached 36, accounting for 49 percent. The Tibetan government also invested 160 million yuan to build 2 new and upgrade 7 public high schools, realizing the gross enrollment ratio of 75.9 percent, said Xu.

 

Tibet has set up a unified financial security mechanism for both urban and rural compulsory education, and achieved 15-year free education. The government also carried out educational poverty relief policy, providing free secondary vocational education to 1,400 students, said Xu.

 

Tibet will launch the third pre-school education action plan to expand pre-school educational coverage in 2017. It will build or rebuild 562 kindergartens, making sure that each town has at least one public kindergarten, said Xu.