Construction sites in China progress at breakneck speed, and the one for the new high school in the Tibetan prefecture of Golog, launched a year ago, was no exception. Behind the hoardings, cranes and dump trucks, the structure of the buildings was already complete. "Girls' dormitory" was written in blue letters on one building. Another indicated that it would house classrooms.

From the start of the 2026 school year, 3,000 middle and high school students will move into this new boarding school. More than half of the high school students from the Golog prefecture, a region that is 92% Tibetan, will thus be distributed between two institutions, this one and another smaller one that opened in 2019 a few dozen kilometers away in the large provincial capital, Xining.

These two high schools for the youth of the Golog prefecture have a surprising point in common: They are not located in Golog. From the new facility under construction in the city of Haidong, situated at the foot of the Tibetan plateau, to the largest town in the region, it is actually 480 kilometers – at least seven and a half hours by road – and many families live even further away. The official press emphasizes that the average altitude of 4,200 meters, isolation and harsh climatic conditions on the Tibetan plateau contribute to poor quality education up there. The articles argue that in boarding schools off the plateau, the results of these youths on the Chinese equivalent of the high school diploma improve.

You have 80.97% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.