As a follow-up on the overall guidelines of the Party Central Committee on poverty alleviation through education, the MOE held a video conference on June 12, to discuss the implementation of targeted support to Tibet aimed at accelerating the development of education in Tibet. The conference was held simultaneously at MOE headquarters and in 17 sub-venues in MOE-affiliated HEIs designated to provide one-on-one support to schools in Tibet. Education Minister Chen Baosheng and Wu Yingjie, Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, attended and addressed the conference.

The Minister said that the MOE had been mobilizing resources to support education in Tibet for decades, under the leadership of the State Council. Whilst noting with satisfaction the effective mechanisms already in place for safeguarding local access to education, he said that a huge discrepancy in educational quality still existed between Tibet and other more prosperous provinces, and therefore urged HEIs to coordinate their efforts to help bridge this gap. He emphasized that assisting Tibet to help it shake off poverty through education was a political imperative under Xi Jinping Thought with Chinese characteristics for a new era. He emphasized that the process required making long-term plans, including the 14th Five-Year Work Plan, as well as providing immediate support to lay the necessary groundwork for economic prosperity. Specifically, he said efforts should be made to modernize Tibet’s education governance system and capacity, raise teachers’ and students’ sense of Chinese nationhood, improve targeted assistance mechanisms, and build the capacity of local education institutions.

Wu welcomed the accommodating policies that the MOE and other ministries had introduced and resources and talent being mobilizing to the aid of education in Tibet. He expressed his wish for continuous support from the ministries, including one-on-one assistance to primary, secondary and vocational schools.