Teachers share their knowledge in Tibet
FIFTY-FIVE teachers from Shanghai set off yesterday for Shigatse, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, as part of an ongoing educational development program.
The group includes 40 educators involved in a Shanghai-based initiative launched in 2016 to send teachers annually to Tibet, where they are based in the Shigatse-Shanghai Experimental School.
The other 15 are part of a national program announced in December to aid educational development in Tibet. These teachers will be based at the Shigatse No.2 Vocational School.
One recruit, Peng Chunhui, a physics teacher at Shanghai New Bridge Middle School, served in a similar program in 2012 which sent him to Kashgar Prefecture, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
“It touches me that, even now, some of the Xinjiang teachers are grateful to us, saying they were inspired by a word, a class or even a homework-assessment demonstration,” he said. “So when I saw a recruitment notice to aid teachers in Tibet, I told myself I should do something for Tibetan children, too.”
But while the program offers the chance for Shanghai teachers to share their knowledge, it also means spending up to a year away from family and familiar surroundings.
Xu Xin, a chemistry teacher at Shanghai Songjiang No.2 High School, said he will miss seeing his 6-year-old daughter start primary school in September. Nevertheless, he says the chance to help Tibetan children is worth the sacrifice.
Shu Yinji, a teacher at the School Affiliated to Jinyuan Senior High School, said his father was diagnosed with liver cancer last year and will be hospitalized later.
“But my family encouraged me to go to Tibet because it’s a meaningful experience,” he said. “They can endure the hardships while I am absent.”
Over the past two years, 74 Shanghai teachers have worked in Shigatse; and their efforts are paying off.
Last year, high school students at the Shigatse Shanghai Experimental School obtained college-entrance exam scores that met the threshold for university admission.