SOUTHWEST CHINA: TIBETAN NEW EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHENGDU 000115

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PGOV CH
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST CHINA: TIBETAN NEW EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

CHENGDU 00000115 001.2 OF 004



1. (SBU) Summary: According to local official media, ten
thousand Tibetan middle school graduates students are to be
given three-year government scholarships under the new "Sichuan
Tibetan Areas Nine Plus Three Free Education Plan." The
Tibetans will attend schools in Chinese-speaking parts of
Sichuan Province. While initially focusing on vocational
training, the proportion of places offered for regular high
school programs that can lead to university training will also
increase over the next several years. Prospective students will
be screened for their political views as well as for health and
Chinese language capability. Widespread unrest in Tibetan areas
in March 2008, as well as the reported initial success of a
pilot project with 300 students from Ganzi Prefecture in early
2009, apparently led to the rapid adoption of this program. End
Summary.

Vocational Training Initiative

--------------


2. (U) The "Nine plus Three" plan offers places both to new
middle school graduates and to any middle school graduate who
will be under the age of 19 as of September 1, 2009. In its
first year, the plan concentrates on vocational education, a
constant focus of educational programs for Tibetans since their
relative lack of facility in Chinese does not equip them for
non-vocational tracks. According to a June 16 article in the
Sichuan Province Party Committee newspaper Sichuan Ribao
(article translated in full below),by 2013 there will be a
significant increase in regular high school slots for Tibetans:
"the province will accelerate the expansion of access to high
school and raise the proportion of middle school students going
on to high school to 95 percent. The proportion of student
places at regular high schools and vocational high school will
reach the ratio of 6:4." The students are to come from Tibetan
areas in Aba Prefecture (5920 students),Ganzi Prefecture (over
4000 students),and Liangshan Prefecture (over 400 students).
The Tibetan students will attend about 80 schools in non-Tibetan
areas of Sichuan Province.

Qualifications for "Nine Plus Three" Include Political Criteria

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3. (SBU) On June 18, the Sichuan Provincial government's
Examination Committee issued a notice on the recruitment of
Tibetan area students to schools in the interior (i.e. Han
areas) of Sichuan Province. According to the official notice,
students must actually be living at their place of household
registration in ethnic Tibetan areas and be graduates of middle
school with a clean criminal record, good health, unmarried,
adequate level of Chinese language for study, interest in
learning a specialty, and be under 19 years of age as of
September 1, 2009. Recruiting schools should get information on
the ideology and character of students from the school they are
applying from in their home area or, for students who have
already graduated, from the local government office in charge of
household registrations. Students who "oppose the principles of
the PRC Constitution," or who do not change their views after
receiving education, should not be enrolled. Students who have
received fines or punishments from public security must report
this with supporting documents from their local government
including official opinions on the disposition of the case.
Students are responsible for the authenticity of materials
provided. Information on recruiting students and policies and
procedures for this program will be announced on the website of
the Sichuan Examination Institute at URL WWW.ZK789.NET
.




4. (SBU) Sixty students from Ganzi Prefecture in western Sichuan
are among the first group of 300 "Nine plus Three" program
students to be sent to the city of Leshan (south of Chengdu).
They began taking courses at a local vocational high school in
March 2009 and were visited recently by the Sichuan media,
including the Sichuan Party Committee's Sichuan Daily and local
television. Reflecting widespread official attitudes, the
article described how their Han Chinese teacher had "tamed the
wild nature of the Tibetans" in just six classroom sessions.
The article highlighted a photo essay on the fine school
facilities the Tibetan students were enjoying and the kindness
of their teacher, who invited them into her home for dinners on
weekends.



Possible Response to Unrest and Unemployed Youth in Tibetan Areas

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CHENGDU 00000115 002.2 OF 004




5. (SBU) With highly subsidized development programs
transforming the two Sichuan largely ethnic Tibetan prefectures
of Ganzi and Aba, including a program for the resettlement of
Tibetan nomads, the Chinese leadership may be trying to respond
to the potential problem of what to do with nomads once they
have been resettled. Large numbers of unemployed youth could
cause social instability. The education plan may represent a
"feeling for the rocks as one crosses the stream" response to
that concern. Assimilation of ethnic Tibetans to Chinese
culture appears well advanced in some Tibetan areas, including
southern Aba Prefecture in Sichuan and northwest Yunnan, but not
in Ganzi Prefecture and pastoral areas of western Sichuan or in
the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR).

Building on an Old Idea

--------------




6. (SBU) The new education initiative likely builds on the
experience of a similar program for students from the TAR that
began in 1985. Since then, some Tibetan elementary school and
junior high school graduates from the TAR have been mainstreamed
into regular Chinese language high schools. Tibetan high
schools or special programs for TAR students within regular high
schools are found in a number of cities across China. The
children of Tibetan Communist Party and government cadres and
some high scoring rural students attend the best Tibetan
programs in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing. There are also
Tibetan high school programs or schools in Wuhan, Chongqing,
Chengdu and other cities. According to regulations on the
management of Tibetan high schools in the Chinese interior that
were promulgated by the State Education Commission in 1989,
Tibetan high schools aim primarily to promote Chinese language
skills, but also to "strengthen" Tibetan language skills.
Schools were ordered to place special stress on ideological work
and assign a person dedicated specifically to that task. Heavy
emphasis is also placed on political education, including
patriotic education and "education on the unity of Chinese
nationalities."




7. (SBU) Ethnic Tibetan students with excellent Chinese prior to
university reportedly stand a good chance of succeeding
academically. However, Tibetans who have not had intensive
Chinese training in a Chinese-speaking environment and get into
good Chinese universities, sometimes with the help of bonus
points for minority students, receive little remedial help and
often are unable to complete their coursework. While some
individual Tibetans from Ganzi and Aba Prefectures in the past
received scholarships, this is the first time Sichuan Province
has attempted such a comprehensive program similar in scale to
what is done in the TAR. The Sichuan Province "Nine Plus Three"
Tibetan student program will enroll ten thousand students each
year for three-year programs. As noted by one local contact,
30,000 students will represent a significant proportion of
annual middle school graduates in Tibetan areas of Sichuan,
perhaps as much as half of all Tibetan middle school students in
Aba this fall.


8. (SBU) It is unclear if this educational program can actually
reduce social disruptions that will likely accompany Sichuan
Province's multi-billion dollar development plans for Tibetan
areas, including the Chengdu to Lhasa railway line to be
completed in ten years that will open the area wider to the
outside world than ever before. Many Tibetans also retain a
strong ethnic Tibetan identity despite a Chinese education and
achieving native speaker fluency in Chinese. One of China's
most famous Tibetan authors, Woeser, writes exclusively in
Chinese. Encounters with ethnic Han prejudices against Tibetans
in schools in ethnic Han areas may strengthen Tibetan
identities. In a widely copied article posted on the internet,
"I'm a Tibetan, I'll Fight Anyone Who Insults Our Nationality",
one anonymous Tibetan high school student complained of the foul
insults Tibetans at schools throughout China have endured from
ethnic Han classmates over the past year. The student concluded
with the statement "Atheists have no business judging our
Tibetan religion."


9. (U) Consulate translation of June 16 Sichuan Daily article
Sichuan in September Will Inaugurate Full Scale Tibetan Areas
"Nine Plus Three" Education Plan:

[Sichuan Daily (Sichuan Province Communist Party Committee
newspaper in Chinese) June 16, 2009]

Ten Thousand Tibetan Area Students Will Study at High Schools
and Vocational Schools this Fall


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(article by Sichuan Daily journalist Zhang Shoushuai) This
Fall, Sichuan Province will send over 10,000 ethnic Tibetan
students to high schools and vocational schools in interior
areas of Sichuan for a free education. This journalist learned
from the Sichuan Province Education Bureau on June 14 that,
beginning September 2009, Sichuan Province will inaugurate its
full-scale "Nine Plus Three" Free Education Plan. The Bureau
has already designated 80 schools at the provincial level or
higher key high schools and vocational schools as schools that
will be implementing this plan.

In order to help peasants and herders escape poverty and in
order to develop the high quality workforce and technically
trained people needed for the social and economic development of
the Tibetan areas, Sichuan Province in March 2009 organized the
first group of 300 students from Ganzi Prefecture to study at
five key vocational schools. This project elicited a very
favorable response. Zhongbu is a member of that first group of
students who went to study in the interior of Sichuan who is now
at the Second Vocational High School in Renshou County. Zongbu
noted; "being able to come to the interior to study for free
ignited dreams in my heart." The school provides bedding, daily
necessities, a school uniform, and 300 RMB/month in living
expenses to each student. Jide, a parent, said; "this state
policy is very good. Now we all want to send our children to
the outside to study."

Government subsidies for ethnic Tibetan students going to the
interior for three years of high school study comes to a total
subsidy of RMB 20,000 for each student. This includes free
tuition of RMB 2000, a living expenses subsidy of RMB 3000 per
year for the first two years, and an additional RMB 1500 subsidy
for the third year (the balance is made up of compensation
earned in work-study and work practicum). There is also a RMB
1500 annual subsidy that covers transportation, dormitory, books
and miscellaneous expenses.

Sichuan Province has announced that by 2013, in addition to
fully implementing nine years of compulsory education in all
ethnic Tibetan areas of the province, it will arrange for
schooling at high schools and vocational schools in the interior
for 10,000 children of peasants and herders. The province will
accelerate the expansion of access to high school and raise the
proportion of middle school students going on to high school to
95 percent and the proportion of student places at regular high
schools and vocational high school will reach the ratio of 6:4.
Therefore the Sichuan Province Education Bureau organized the
"Tibetan Areas "Nine Plus Three" Free Vocational Education At
High Schools and Vocational Schools in the Interior Expert
Leading Committee, which is charged with selecting 68
specialties and 169 specialty development tracks suited for
Tibetan students that will be provided as suggestions to the
high schools and vocational schools recruiting Tibetan students,
and to assist that school adjust their plans for recruiting
students for various specialties.

According to preliminary statistics, at present, of those ethnic
Tibetan students who intend to study at high schools this Fall
in interior Sichuan, there are 5920 from Aba Prefecture, over
4000 from Ganzi Prefecture, and over 400 from Liangshan
Prefecture. This shows the great effort put into to developing
new talent for the ethnic Tibetan areas.

The pace of economic and social development in a region depends
to a large extent upon its human talent. Sichuan Province in
implementing the Tibetan Areas "Nine Plus Three" Free Education
Plan, will enable Tibetans to get a high quality vocational
education in the interior. This is putting much effort into
developing new talent for the Tibetan areas and is an important
measure for providing human talents and construction of the new
socialist pastoral areas. This policy has the enthusiastic
support of the great majority of peasants and herders and will
promote the rapid economic and social development of Sichuan
Province's ethnic Tibetan areas.

This is the first year of the full implementation of the Sichuan
Province's Tibetan Areas "Nine Plus Three" Free Education Plan.
Scientific, effective implementation of this project for the
people's livelihood will be important for the development of the
"Virtuous Government Project".

Every level and every department of government should strengthen
leadership, make plans to be more concrete, lay stress on
essentials according to what is needed for the successful
implementation of Sichuan Province's Tibetan Areas "Nine Plus
Three" Free Education Project. Moreover, every sector in
society should with real actions show their concern for the
studies and growth of the ethnic Tibetan students and create a
good environment in which they can live and study.

Source: Sichuan Ribao at
http://epaper.xplus.com/papers/scrb/20090615/ n1.shtml

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10. (U) Online References Collated by Consulate General Chengdu:

-- Sichuan Educational Testing Committee notice (2009) 55 on
recruiting students to high schools and vocational schools under
the Sichuan Province Tibetan Areas "9+3"High School and
Vocational School Free Temporary Guidelines" Education online at
URL tinyurl.com/tibet-scholarships-sichuan .

-- Sichuan Province Examination Institute website www.zk789.net
.

-- PRC State Education Commission March 1989 Temporary
Regulations on the Management of Tibet High School Courses of
Study in the Chinese Interior at URL tinyurl.com/TibetanHSregs .

-- Web report with photos on some of the first group of "Nine
Plus Three" Tibetan students at a high school in Leshan. URL at
tinyurl.com/leshan-wild-tibetans .

-- A Tibetan at a Chinese high school complains about attitudes
of Han students towards Tibetans "I'm a Tibetan, I'll Fight
Anyone Who Insults Our Nationality"

at URL tinyurl.com/Tibetan-student-writes .
BOUGHNER