Located at an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, the Central Primary School in Nyangpo Township, Gongbo'Gyamda County, Nyingchi City, southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, faced severe challenges when it was established in 1994, with poor teaching facilities and surging teacher turnover.
To help solve these problems and improve local education, schools in Zhongshan City, south China's Guangdong Province, organized paired-up assistance with all primary and secondary schools in Gongbo'Gyamda County in 2016, focusing on providing teaching materials and teachers' training.
Benefiting from the aiding efforts of Guangdong, advanced teaching facilities and heating systems have been installed in teaching buildings, and standard basketball courts and football fields have also been built in the schoolyard.
Guangdong's assistance is just a part of China's national paired-up assistance to the development of Xizang. Thirty years ago, the central government made a major decision to rally national support for Xizang.
Under the paired-up assistance policy, some central state organs, provincial-level regions and centrally administered state-owned enterprises were designated to assist in specific areas in the region.
Since then, cadres from government and enterprise units have taken turns stationed on the plateau, greatly contributing to the development there.
Xizang is the first provincial-level region in China to provide 15 years of public-funded education, from kindergarten to senior high school.
A modern education system encompassing preschools, primary and secondary schools, vocational and technical schools, institutions of higher learning, and continuing and special education institutions is in place, said a white paper on the governance of Xizang in the new era issued last November.
The results of the seventh national census showed that the number of college or university graduates per 100,000 inhabitants in Xizang had risen from 5,507 in 2010 to 11,019 in 2020, while new entries into the region's workforce now have an average of 13.1 years of education, noted the white paper.
Such an assistance project is just part of China's extensive efforts to ensure that every child has fair access to quality education. Over the past decade, education has been prioritized in the country's strategic planning, financial investment and allocation of public resources.
Data shows that since the 18th Communist Party of China National Congress in 2012, educational investment in China's central and western regions has grown significantly, especially in places such as northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Xizang and southwest China's Guizhou Province.
The proportion of national fiscal expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP has remained above 4 percent for 11 consecutive years.
China boasts the largest education system in the world. As of 2023, the gross enrollment rates for preschool education, secondary education and higher education reached 91.1 percent, 91.8 percent and 60.2 percent, respectively.
Beyond "making education universally available," China has initiated an array of reforms to promote the quality of the education system and ensure the well-rounded development of students in the new era, which include improving curriculum building and implementing the "double reduction" policy.
The "double reduction" policy is aimed at reducing the excessive homework load and after-school tutoring hours for students in compulsory education and boosting the all-round development and personal growth of students.
Schools across the country are designing courses that can nurture students with sound moral grounding, intellectual ability, physical vigor, aesthetic sensibility and work skills.
(With input from Xinhua)