The Absent Family and the Education among Contemporary Tibetan Students

Abstract

The deficiency of educational resources is typically held as one of the major impediments to the educational development of Tibetans in China. Even though the Chinese state has committed to supportive policies and providing resources to the region, the academic performance of Tibetan students remains low. The current study examines how students’ family life affects their academic performance in schools. Based on the fieldwork in two Tibetan-serving boarding schools in Northwest China, we found that family absence and family education have a profound impact on Tibetan children’s academic learning. Drawing on the sociology of education literature, we analyzed the tri-factors of family socioeconomic status (SES), family structure, and values. Our analysis revealed that even with an increased level of resource input, family factors contributed to Tibetan students’ disappointing academic achievement. Our analysis suggested that well-intended educational policies cannot entirely substitute for the disadvantages caused by an absent family.

Keywords:

• Family absence
• Tibetan family education
• Tibetan family structure
• Tibetan household SES
• Tibetan parents
• Tibetan students

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 ECP (Education Consolidation Policy 撤点并校) is a policy designed for rural schools (ethnic or non-ethnic) and has been implemented in China since 2001. The rationale behind ECP is efficiency and quality (Mei et al. 2015). Many rural regions in China are sparsely populated, therefore, village schools typically only have a handful of students. The ECP project aimed to consolidate village schools within a certain administrative radius into one school. That school’s facilities are newly built and are typically better resourced. TBP (Two Basics Project 两基) is the abbreviation of universalizing nine-year compulsory education, basically eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged adults. Starting in 2004, TBP was primarily established to promote the development of education in the western region of China, thus improving the quality of life, and narrowing the educational gap between the east and the west of China. PDECE (Prevent Dropout and Ensure Compulsory Education 控辍保学) is a policy issued by the State Council of China in 2017. The purpose of PDECE is to prevent and control the number of student dropouts in the stage of compulsory education, to ensure that the consolidation rate of nine-year compulsory education will reach 95% by 2020, and ensure that school-age children receive compulsory education according to the law. TEOS (Two Exemptions and One Subsidy 两免一补) is one of China’s educational assistance policies to promote the balanced development of compulsory education, which was implemented in 2001. It refers to a subsidy policy in which the state provides free textbooks, exempts miscellaneous fees, and subsidizes certain living expenses to boarding students from poor families at the stage of compulsory education (i.e., primary and junior high schools) in rural areas.

2 minkaomin (民考民) refers to a type of college admission exam for minority students based on their minority language. Minority students who enrolled in minkaomin will use their mother language to answer the exam. Differing from the National Higher Education Entrance Examination (gaokao), minkaomin has a separate enrollment plan and the admission score is much lower than gaokao. Minority students who take the examination of minkaomin can primarily apply only for the colleges or majors that have instruction in their own languages.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liqin Tong

Liqin Tong is currently a lecturer at Sichuan Institute for Advanced Study on Culture and Education, Sichuan Normal University.

Yisu Zhou

Yisu Zhou is an associate professor at the University of Macau’s Faculty of Education.