The educational level of population is the outcome of educational and cultural development. It is an important indicator showing the extent of prosperity in a state, region or an ethnic group, and also a basic factor retarding or promoting socioeconomic development.

The educational qualifications of population are a social phenomenon and also belong to a historical category. That's to say, different modes of production set different demands for laborers with educational and scientific attainments. There are different ways to train laborers.

Productivity was very low in old Tibet under the rule of the feudal serf system which was characterized by integrating political power with religion. This system required its rulers and administrators to learn none other than the traditional rituals and ceremonies related to political activities. They should also be taught to calculate tax revenues and expenditures, deal with official documents and formulate laws and regulations. In addition to the above requirements, lamas of the Gelug sect should also learn Hetuvidya, the science of logical reasoning created by ancient Indian scholars. Lamas of religious sects other than the Gelug sect must study incantation, medicine, and astrology. The common people and serfs were treated simply as labourers, no matter they were illiterate or not, so long as they were physically fit and mastered simple productive skills.

I. Backward Education and a High Illiteracy Rate in Old Tibet

To meet the demands by this backward social, economic and political structure, old Tibet had its own unique educational methods and courses in the world.

Educational institutions in old Tibet were grouped into three categories. The first category was schools run by the local government to train religious and secular officials. In these schools, rituals and ceremonies, arithmetics and bureaucratic ways in dealing with documents, and study of sutras were taught for students or trainees. Most of these students came from aristocratic families. The second was schools run by monasteries or lamaseries for training lamas. Here religion was the major course taught along with medicine and astrology. The third was the old-style private schools. Most of them were run by lamas, while a few by secular people. Most of them were located in cities and some were affiliated to monasteries, but they were all open to society. The main course taught in these private schools was the Tibetan language, beginning with the alphabet, then the vocabulary of common use and finally the grammar. Students had to spend two or three years to complete their education in these schools.

The Ministry of Education of the former Kuomintang Government founded a primary school in Lhasa which was attended mainly by Han and Hui pupils, few Tibetan children were enrolled. Some Nepalese People also started a school in Lhasa which was designed for the education of Nepalese children. Nepalese and Hindu languages were taught there to help them do business in India in the future.

Some British individuals set up an English language school in Lhasa in 1945 for educating children of Tibetan aristocratic families, but it lasted for only a few months for it met with the opposition from lamas. Afterwards, the local government of Tibet selected and sent some youngsters with an aristocratic family background to study in India.

In all, education in Tibet in the o1d days was very back- ward and no schools there offered modern education.

There were 20 schools run by the local government of Tibet and 96 old-style private schools, with a total enrol1ment of 3,200 students, accounting for only 0.26 percent of Tibet's population at that time.

In old Tibet, the illiteracy rate was amazingly high. A rough estimate based on the illiteracy rate among residents aged 65 and over (who were born before l925 and may represent the situation of illiteracy before l950) during the l990 national population census shows that the illiteracy rate was 90.6 percent for urban residents (80.0 percent for urban males and 97.9 percent for urban females) and 9l.4 percent for county population (rural population) (81.6 percent for rural males and 98.1 percent for rural females).