"We see that our country is very beautiful through TV I shall study hard to be able to get there for further study." Quzhag Qoinpe, a teenager living in Jiuli County told us his dream when he accepted a lift in our car to his high school in the county seat. The l3-yearold boy was born and brought up on the grassland. The year 200l witnessed realization of a new step of the grass-roots education system in Tibet f each township having at least a primary school and each county having at least a high school. This meant a lot to him, because in the same year he had finished his primary schooling in the township, and become the first high school student in his family for generations! His father took him on horse back, climbing over two high mountains to the high school in the county seat. Unlike life during the nomadic primary school days, he would lead a brand-new boarding school life from then on. His home was not terribly far from the county seat, it took them just a day by horseback if they took the shortcut. So his father carried him by horseback home every weekend. But in the beginning of this semester, his father was still grazing in the winter range, so the boy had to walk a1one for five hours to the nearest highway to find a lilt.
Now more and more Tibetan teenagers like Quzhag Qoinpe have cherished the hope to go to Beijing, and even abroad for further study. Especially in this year when it is broadly reported that ten postgraduates have been turned out by Tibet University and the Tibet Institute of Traditional Tibetan Medicine and obtained masters degrees for the first time in Tibetan history. Pursuing higher educational soon became the new goal among many young Tibetan students.
However, still few postgraduate programs are available in Tibet. Therefore many Tibetan youngsters have chosen to go to the hinterland for further study. The TAR government has entered into cooperative agreements with several universities in the hinterland to commission them to cultivate postgraduates for Tibet. Now there are 94, l8 and 20 Tibetan postgraduates respectively in Renmin, Tianjin and Sichuan University. In 2000 when Renmin University first recruited 34 Tibetan students, the applicants were more than 400.
Like those in the hinterland, some Tibetan youngsters choose to study abroad. Sonam Yanggye, graduated from university in 200l, is about to leave for Berkeley State University of California. She said f "I will study in the USA at my own expense. It is not a small sum, but my mother said she would support me even on a loan."
Nowadays self education is also an approach to higher educational attainment. Since l999, the Economic and Trade Commission of the TAR government has held an MBA program in Tibet in cooperation with the Business Administration School of Sichuan University. 25 and 6l trainees have obtained MBA degree and postgraduate diplomas respectively. Ma Guangyao, deputy director of Tibet Institute of Pedagogical Science, said: "The phenomenon of pursuing higher education has reflected the demand of social development. In the l980s, for finding a job earlier, Tibetan youth preferred the technical secondary school to the university. But now, the society needs more and more personnel with higher educational attainment. For example, we require that all teachers in high school should at least have an undergraduate background by 2005. That is why the trend of study takes shape in Tibet."
