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The remote, sparsely populated, and harsh environment of Tibet plateau further complicates educational reform in this frontier region. In their chapter, Gerard Postiglione, Ben Jiao, Li Xiaoliang, and Tsamla survey the challenges associated with popularizing basic education in the nomadic regions of Tibet. Drawing on fieldwork in remote Nakchu and Ngari prefectures, they identified a significant gap between the perceptions and desires of state educators and the families of Tibetan nomads. While the state is focused on meeting enrolment targets, most nomadic families continue to question the value of a modern-style education, resulting in high rates of truancy and drop-outs. What is required, they argue, is a curriculum that is “culturally sensitive, regionally relevant, and responsive to the realities of the nomadic community.” In particular, they identify the lack of sufficient vocational training and locally-embedded schools and curriculum as two important hurdles to improving the uptake of basic education for Tibetan nomads.

This chapter briefly narrates the history of India’s quest for elementary education till 1986 when the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, came into effect. It outlines the nationalist discourse on education, and Mahatma Gandhi’s basic education which was the regnant model for universalizing elementary education for the first 15 years after Independence. It also outlines the debates in the Constituent Assembly over elementary education and concludes that hope triumphed over reality when the Constitution laid down that elementary education should be universalized within 10 years. It also describes the recommendations of the landmark Kothari Commission and the provisions of Independent India’s first National Policy on Education (1969). It concludes with a narration of the Constitution in 1976 which shifted the provisions relating to education in the State List to the Concurrent List.

With the support of the Ford Foundation, Professor Teng Xing of Minzu University in Beijing has overseen a long-term project aimed at promoting the educational opportunities among the Lahu minority girls of the remote and mountainous Muga township, which is situated along Yunnan province’s border with Burma. In his chapter, Teng and his colleagues reflect on the impact of the specialized Lahu girls’ classes they helped to establish in 2001, and chronicle the impressive academic achievements of two cohorts of students. Putting forward the “Lahu classes” as a successful example of “multicultural integration education,” they argue that the classes provide their lucky participants with the rudiments of a modern education—fluency in Putonghua, basic academic skills and a cultural toolkit—which enables them to survive outside their isolated, rural communities. At the same time, it is argued that the classes help the girls to take pride in their indigenous culture and language through the use of local curriculum materials and pedagogical strategies, while simultaneously promoting the integration of the Lahu minority into mainstream society and the cultural diversity of the Chinese nation