Over 10,000 Tibetan students enrolled in the “Tibet classes” across major Chinese cities in 2025, marking the highest annual intake since the program’s inception, as per the Education Bureau of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Critics, including Tibetan groups and rights advocates, have raised concerns, alleging that the program serves as a means of political indoctrination and cultural assimilation. In 2025, 10,500 students from Tibetan regions joined these classes established in schools across China.
Chinese authorities have hailed the enrollment figures as historically significant, noting an expansion in the number of specialized classes and institutions under the program. In 2025, five new schools exclusively dedicated to ‘Tibet Classes’ were established in Chinese cities. Additionally, there were 150 new junior middle school classes with an enrollment of 2,000 students, 205 new senior middle school classes with 4,500 students, and 223 new middle-level vocational education classes with 4,000 students.
The report highlighted a growth in Tibet Classes, also known as Tibet Middle Schools, since 2023, with student enrollment increasing at an average annual rate of 9.9% over the past three years. Chinese authorities emphasized that the program’s rapid expansion aligns with the policy framework of “three increments, three coverages, and one standardization,” as detailed in the Phayul report.
Since its inception in 1984, the Tibet Class system has expanded, with official figures indicating the operation of 129 Tibet Class schools in 23 provinces and 60 provincial-level cities of China by 2025. Approximately 25,000 Tibetan students have joined these schools, with around 180,000 graduates now employed across various sectors, according to Chinese authorities.
