During the past 50 years, education in Tibet has improved greatly. Meanwhile, the Tibetan language has also been  very well protected. (CCTV.com)

Xerab Nyima, Vice-Dean of Central University for Nationalities, said, "All my five brothers and sisters graduated from college. It is unimaginable that I came from that remote county and studied in Beijing. It is even more unimaginable that I am now the vice-dean of a university in Beijing and studying Tibetan history."

The Free Education Policy in Tibetan areas allowed him to continue his studies from primary school through to middle school.

According to statistics, before 1960, the enrollment rate for children of school age was only 2 percent. That number has now risen to 99 percent.

During the past 50 years, education in Tibet has improved greatly. Meanwhile, the Tibetan language has also been very well protected.

All the ethnically Tibetan students are taught in their own language. The central government puts billions of yuan into the Tibetan education system every year.

The vice-dean also answered some claims in the foreign media. They had reported that people in Tibet had been forced to change their lives, and that their survival and developmental rights could not be safeguarded.

The vice-dean said the Tibetan people are not living fossils, and needed modernizing too.

He added it was inhumane that the outside world lived a modern life, while Tibetan people were still using oil lamps.

(CCTV March 30, 2008)