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Cakalho Middle School: Tibet’s first rural middle school
By:China Tibet News
update:July 23,2019
July 23, 2019 -- Located in Cakalho Naxi Ethnic Town of Mangkam County, Qamdo City, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, Cakalho Middle School is the first rural middle school in Tibet.
 
In August 1951, Cakalho Primary School was formally established. In 1975, Cakalho Junior Middle School was set up. In 1978, Cakalho Middle School was founded.
 
"Initially, there were only 24 students, schooling for two years," says Garluo, the headmaster who comes here to teach after graduating from the Department of Mathematics & Science of Tibet University in 1995. He has served as headmaster for 16 years and won the honorary title of fifth national moral model.
 
Now, Cakalho Middle School has over 1,500 students, 30 classes and more than 100 teachers. Its students come from 6 surrounding towns and villages.
 
"Here is a major traffic artery with a large flow of people. In history, there have been frequent exchanges and integration among different ethnic groups. Thus local people attach more importance to education than those in other rural and pastoral areas of Tibet, and the education level is always higher. This is also the main reason for the establishment of Tibet's first rural middle school in our town," says Sonam Chozong, head of Naxi Nationality Town.
 
Yudron, born in 1963, is now known as one of the local foregoers for becoming rich. When she was young, in order to support her younger brother and sister and her own children to go to school, she went through unimaginable hardships. "As the eldest daughter in the family, my parents really didn't want to see me being too tired. They once suggested my younger brother and sister give up their studies and come home to work, but I strongly disagreed," she says, "If one doesn't go to school, one can't even find a toilet when going out."
 
She supports the children to go to school while runs a business and improve the family's finances, now all of them work as public servants.
 
Cakalho Middle School has always maintained good teaching quality, and its collage enrollment rate is among the best in Qamdo. As early as 2011, it has been listed as "Quality Education Reform Experimental Pilot School" by Tibet Autonomous Region.
 
Konqiu Gyaltsen, 15, is a junior three student. "In the past three years, I have learned a lot here. I hope to study incities outside Tibet after the high school entrance examination, to broaden my horizon," saysKonqiu Gyaltsen, who also likes playing basketball.
 
Basketball is the traditional advantage of Cakalho Middle School. In addition, students can choose to participate in interest groups such as dance, art, music, painting, calligraphy, football and archery according to their own interests.
 
As a rural middle school, with the increasing number of students, the brain drain and shortage of teachers are the most worrying things for headmaster Garluo. At present, the average age of the current school teachers is less than 30 years old, and their average degree is above junior college. Among them, there are two studying for graduate degree, and one taking the postgraduate examination.
 
In 2018, Mangkam County invested 14.57 million yuan RMB to implement the project of building 8 township standardized boarding schools, and 51.87 million yuan RMB to implement the project of building 19 preschool bilingual kindergartens. Currently, the enrollment rate of junior middle schools and primary schools in the county is close to 100%.

By:Liu Fang, Zhi Xinghua
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