Hao Shiyuan provided the latest figures for 2016, when Tibet had 6 institutions of higher learning, 127 middle schools and 826 primary schools. The total enrollment was over half a million. Some 98.9 percent of children are enrolled in primary schools, 23.4 percent in colleges. Illiteracy fell to 1.2 percent. Average span of education for people over 15 years old has grown to 7.3 years.

 

Last year, Tibet maintained double digital economic growth and people's living standard continued to rise, with per capita urban distributable income reached 27,875 yuan (4,082.75 U.S. dollars), up 10 percent year on year; rural 9,316 yuan, up 13 percent.

 

However, the modernization of Tibet is still a major challenge for the Chinese government, because modernization at 4,000 meters above sea level is a pioneering effort with no prior models to follow, Hao said.

 

Population of the Tibet Autonomous Region is now about 3.2 million, with 27.74 percent urban and 72.26 percent rural. The economic and social development of Tibet remains a long and difficult task during China's modernization drive, he said.

 

Hao's delegation met on June 16 with President of the Constitutional Commission of the Senate of Spain, Juan Jose Lucas, while the day before, it was at a conference at the Confucius Institute in Barcelona.