In Old Tibet, with the exception of schools within the monasteries and government-run schools for children of aristocrats and monk officials, there were no schools in the modern sense. More than 90 percent of the population was illiterate or semi-literate. Today an educational system comprising pre-school, primary, secondary and specialized secondary education as well as polytechnic, vocational and adult education and TV classes is basically in place.Currently, 78.2 percent of school age children attend school. By 2000 there were 3,500 schools at all levels in Tibet. They included four schools of higher learning: Tibet University, Tibet Institute for Ethnic Minorities, Tibet College of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, and Tibet College of Tibetan Medicine. These schools of higher learning enrolled 3,500 students in 1999. In addition, there were 12 secondary schools specialized in education, agriculture and animal husbandry, finance and economics, sports, arts, post and telecommunications, over 98 ordinary middle schools, and 4,251 primary schools (village primary schools included). They employed 19,000 teachers and enrolled 359,000 students. About 85.8 percent of the school age children attended school, and the majority of them are children of Tibetan or other ethnic minorities. The region has set up more than 70 specialized secondary schools attended by 12,000 Tibetan students in 21 provinces and municipalities directly under the Central Government in China.

The government has substantially increased investment in modern schools since the 1980s. Many policies providing special treatment or material benefits have been implemented. These include government-paid education for ethnic Tibetan students from primary school through college, a policy of supplying food, clothing and accommodation free of charge to some ethnic Tibetan primary and secondary students and the use of boarding schools in rural areas, a student grant and scholarship system which is step by step being put in place at primary and secondary schools above the township level; schools of all types and at all levels drawing the bulk of their student body from the local ethnic people, and ethnic Tibetans and other local minority peoples receiving priority in enrollment at colleges and secondary specialized schools; teachers from more developed areas in China being dispatched to Tibet to work where they are needed to further education; and Tibetan secondary schools and Tibetan classes within other schools being opened elsewhere in China where conditions for education are comparatively better with special treatment given to Tibetan students in their studies and their living conditions. The government has also given support and attention to setting up specialized schools, departments, and courses dealing with Tibetan language, medicine, art, history and other aspects of Tibetan culture. Statistics show in the 40 years from 1959 to 1998, Tibet had churned out 16,384 university and college graduates, 136,126 middle school graduates, 28,480 secondary specialized school graduates, and 266, 315 primary school graduates.