400 Chinese cadres take posts in 21 Tibetan schools under controversial educational aid program

Four hundred teachers from 17 Chinese provinces and municipalities have begun their stints as teachers and administrators in 21 schools located in Tibet Autonomous Region under the so-called ‘Group-form’ educational aid program.

The current group represents the ninth batch of the program among which 86 are principals, deputy principals, academic directors, and moral education directors and the remaining 314 are full-time teachers in primary, middle and high schools, reported the official Lhasa Daily on 11 September.

The TAR Education Department, under the guidance of the Organization Department of the TAR Party Committee, has drafted the “Implementation Plan for ‘Group-form’ Tibet aid work” and is in the process of revising the “Administrative Measures for the Tibet-based Aid Cadres”, according to the report.

Zhao Yun, a member of the group from Beijing who now works as deputy principal at Lhasa Primary School no. 1, was quoted as saying that she would “try her best to build a communication platform between Beijing and Tibet, give full play to the role of Beijing’s high-quality educational resources, and impart advanced teaching and concepts and methods to Tibetan teachers.”

Zhao added that because of the program, “[T]he children in Lhasa, like the children of Beijing, can be trained as the builders and successors of the socialist cause who loves the party and patriotism.”